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Prof.  HENRY  BRONSON,  M.D. 


At  a  regular  meeting  of  the  New  Haven  Colony  Historical 
Society  held  Monday  evening,  May  26,  1894,  the  following 
vote  was  unanimously  adopted  : 

Voted,  That  Stephen  G.  Hubbard,  M.D.,  be  requested  by 
this  society  to  prepare  a  paper  commemorative  of  the  profes- 
sional and  personal  character  of  the  late  Henry  Bronson,  M.D., 
and  of  the  service  he  rendered  this  society  by  his  valuable 
contributions  to  its  historical  publications. 

In  compliance  with  the  above  request  a  paper  on  the  fore- 
going subject  was  prepared  by  Dr.  Hubbard  and  read  by  him 
at  a  meeting  of  this  society,  held  on  the  evening  of  May  27, 
1895.  I'lie  meeting  passed  a  vote  of  thanks  to  Dr.  Hubbard, 
and  requested  him  to  furnish  a  copy  for  publication  by  the 

society. 

He;nry  T.  Blake, 

Sec.  N.  H.  Col.  Hist.  Society. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

OF   THE 

IvlFE  AND   WRITINGS 

OF  THE  I,ATE 

PROFESSOR  HENRY   BRONSON,   M.D. 

BY 

Dr.  Stephen  G.  Hubbard. 

Read  before  the  New  Haven  Colony  Historical  Society,  by  invitation, 
May  27tli,  1895. 


^npHE  life  and  charadler  of  him  in  whose  memory 
we  are  now  assembled,  have  peculiar  claims  to 
honorable  mention  by  the  wise  and  good  in  this  com- 
munity ;  and  particularly  by  his  associates  in  this 
society,  of  which  he  was  one  of  the  corporate  mem- 
bers. 

He  was  known  as  a  quiet,  unobtrusive  gentleman 
of  high  charadler  and  distinguished  attainments — as 
a  man  of  few  words,  but  of  dire6l  and  honest  thought 
— and  as  an  advocate  of  whatever  he  regarded  as 
abstradl  truth. 


He  came  to  us  in  the  full  development  of  his  intel- 
ledlual  faculties,  at  a  time  when  he  impressed  all 
with  whom  he  came  in  contacfl,  as  a  man  of  rare 
powers  of  observation,  and  of  acute  mental  percep- 
tions— of  broad  and  liberal  \'iews  of  public  affairs — as 
a  close  and  logical  reasoner,  and  a  lover  of  equity. 
Touching  this  community  and  the  State  at  so  many 
points  as  he  did,  and  lea\dng  upon  every  side  the 
impress  of  a  noble  character,  the  beneficial  but  un- 
conscious influence  of  which  still  remains  an  active 
living  force,  I  can  but  feel,  gentlemen,  that  in 
accepting  your  in\ntation,  I  have  assumed  a  difficult 
but  honorable  and  most  pleasing  duty,  in  attempting 
to  speak  fittingly  here  of  his  great  A^-isdom,  and  of 
his  many  virtues. 


HENRY    BRONSON 

Was  bom  in  Waterbury  on  tbe  30tli  of  January,  1804. 
He  died  in  tbis  city  of  tbe  accumulated  infirmities  of 
age  on  tbe  26tb  of  November,  1893.  Like  most  of 
tbe  boys  of  New  England  of  tbat  day,  bis  early 
youtb  was  spent  in  assisting  bis  fatber  in  tbe  cares 
of  tbe  farm,  and  in  acquiring  sucb  an  education  as 
was  afforded  bim  in  tbe  common  distri(5l  scbool  of 
tbe  town,  supplemented  by  tuition  at  tbe  Hopkins 
Grammar  Scbool  in  tbis  city.  Witb  tbese  slender 
opportunities  of  acquiring  knowledge  be  developed  a 
remarkable  love  for  letters,  wbicb  continued  tbrougb 
a  long  life,  and  caused  bim  during  tbe  earlier  years 
of  bis  pupilage  to  expend  for  books  all  of  bis  avail- 
able resources. 

At  tbe  age  of  17  or  18  years,  a  period  wben  most 
farmers'  sons,  unable  to  endure  tbe  rigorous  climate, 
and  tbe  severity  of  discipline  administered  to  tbem, 
after  wbicb  so  few  lived  to  be  quoted  as  examples  of 
tbe  *'  survival  of  tbe  fittest,"  be  began  to  sbrink  in 
form,  and  to  deteriorate  in  pbysical  vigor.  His 
bealtb,  never  strong,  became  delicate,  and  tbe  occu- 
pations of  tbe  farm  grew  more  and  more  distasteful 
to  bim ;  so  tbat,  wben  tbe  time  came  tbat  be  must 


choose  for  himself  a  calling  for  life,  he  fully  realized 
that  the  ancestral  acres  had  for  him  no  charms. 

His  father,  Bennet  Bronson,  Yale  1797,  was  a 
law^-er  b}-  profession  in  Waterburj-,  and  was  for 
man}'  3'ears  a  Judge  of  the  County  Court — he  was 
also  a  large  landed  proprietor,  and  a  man  of  wealth 
and  influence.  Judge  Bronson  had  alread}-  sent  two 
sons  to  Yale  College,  both  of  whom  died  young,  and 
it  was  the  desire  of  his  heart  that  this  son  would 
remain  at  home,  and  take  charge  of  the  estate. 

But,  the  intelleAual  life  of  the  son,  so  far  from 
being  satisfied  in  its  demands  b}^  the  attractions  of  a 
pastoral  existence,  longed  for  the  mental  stimulus 
and  growth  to  be  gained  b}-  professional  stud}- ;  and 
it  was  only  after  a  critical  anal^'sis  of  his  own  powers, 
and  a  careful  balancing  of  the  arguments  for  and 
against  his  natural  preference,  that  he  finalh'  adopted 
for  his  ultimate  pursuit  the  profession  of  medicine. 

Well  knowing  his  father's  long  cherished  hopes 
and  desires  that  his  son  would  become  so  much 
attached  to  countrj^  life  that  he  would  adopt  agricul- 
ture as  a  profession, — and  kno\ving  also  his  father's 
natural  intolerance  of  opposition  to  his  wishes, — and 
owing  to  his  own  native  modest}-  and  retiring  dispo- 
sition, being  averse  to  meeting  his  father  with  a  per- 
sonal assertion  of  his  own  preferences,  in  opposition 
to  the  settled  plan  of  his  family,  he  found  himself  in 
a  most  difficult  and  unpleasant  position. 


Under  these  circumstances  lie  adopted  the  only 
course  that  seemed  open  to  him,  and  it  proved  to  be 
a  wise  one.  He  addressed  to  his  father  a  long  and 
dispassionate  letter,  opening  to  him  his  very  heart ; 
and  offering  for  his  consideration  such  weighty  argu- 
ments and  cogent  reasons  why  it  was  the  most  desir- 
able thing  possible  for  him  to  study  a  profession 
instead  of  becoming  a  fixture  upon  the  farm,  that  the 
father  at  once  coincided  in  opinion  with  his  son ;  and 
henceforth,  every  facility  for  study  which  the  times 
afforded  was  placed  within  his  reach.  From  this  day 
onward  the  entire  current  of  the  boy's  thought  was 
deepened,  broadened,  strengthened  and  refined  by  a 
definite  aim  in  the  work  of  his  life. 

The  choice  of  a  profession  marks  an  epoch  of  the 
gravest  importance  in  the  career  of  any  young  man. 
It  becomes,  insensibly  to  himself,  a  point  of  departure 
as  well  as  of  convergence  of  all  the  lines  that  enter 
into  his  future  history,  while  hidden  indications  of 
native  genius,  warmed  by  the  promethean  fire,  are 
silently  assuming  form  and  proportions  which  are 
eventually  to  illustrate  and  adorn  his  intelledlual  life. 
Thus  it  was  that,  in  an  hour,  the  entire  course  of  our 
friend's  life  was  radically  changed  and  intensified. 

A  judicious  line  of  procedure  was  defined  and 
followed,  and  in  1824  he  entered  himself  as  a  student 


in  the  Medical  Department  of  Yale  College,  under 
the  instruction  of  such  eminent  men  as  Benjamin 
Silliman,  Nathan  Smith  and  Eli  Ives, — these  three 
gentlemen  constituting,  at  that  date,  the  entire 
faculty'  of  medicine,  by  whom  he  was  duly  graduated 
with  the  class  of  1S27,  as  a  Doclor  in  Medicine. 

Dr.  Bronson's  first  settlement  as  a  candidate  for  pro- 
fessional emplo^Tnent  was  in  "West  Springfield,  ]Massa- 
chusetts,  where  he  acquired  considerable  reputation, 
and  in  183 1  married  Sarah  ^liles,  daughter  of  Hon. 
Samuel  Lathrop,  a  wealth}^  resident  of  that  town,  a 
law3'er  and  a  member  of  Congress.  Another  daugh- 
ter of  ]Mr.  Lathrop  married  Rev.  William  B.  Sprague, 
D.D.,  Yale  181 5,  one  of  the  resident  clergy-men  of 
Alban}-,  X.  Y.,  and  a  famous  preacher  of  the  day. 
It  was  probabl}-  this  famil\-  connection  that  induced 
3'oung  Bronson  to  remove  to  Alban}-,  where  he  was 
earl}-  in\-ited  to  become  a  partner  with  Alden  Jklarch, 
M.D.,  then  and  until  his  death  professor  of  surgery 
in  the  Alban}-  Medical  College,  and  the  most  cele- 
brated surgeon  in  that  portion  of  the  State. 

After  his  removal  to  Alban}^  Dr.  Bronson  occupied 
his  leisure  hours  by  writing  for  the  periodical  press 
articles  upon  a  variet^^  of  topics,  more  or  less  scien- 
tific in  their  nature,  but  written  in  a  manner  clearl}" 
indicating  the  versatility  of  his  talents ;  while  ever3'' 


produdlion  of  his  pen  attracted  marked  attention,  and 
was  regarded  by  the  public  as  an  earnest  of  the  good 
things  that  might  be  expedled  from  him. 

As  an  illustration  of  his  style  of  composition  and 
method  of  reasoning  at  this  early  period  of  his  career, 
and  to  show  how  these  were  admired  by  some  of  the 
best  men  of  the  profession  outside  of  his  native  State, 
I  append  some  notices  by  the  medical  press,  and 
extracts  from  letters  by  persons  unknown  to  him. 
Dr.  C.  C.  Yates,  at  that  time  an  eminent  physician  of 
New  York,  thus  addresses  him  in  October,  1832  : 

"  I  believe  that  I  am  indebted  to  your  politeness 
for  a  philosophic  essay  on  Medical  Logic — (or  as  the 
writer  of  the  letter  has  it),  on  '  reasoning  in  medicine? 
This  paper  I  have  read  with  much  attention  and 
improvement.  Indeed,  sir,  I  confess  myself  much 
interested  in  its  perusal,  and  consequently  I  tender  to 
you  my  acknowledgments.  If  that  justice  were 
rendered  to  your  produdlion,  which  in  my  estimation 
it  deserves,  it  would  place  its  author  far  above  his 
compeers.  I  admired  the  language  and  the  spirit  of 
your  late  letters  on  the  Cholera,  although  differing 
from  me  in  some  pradlical  views,  but  I  was  not  pre- 
pared to  see  so  able  a  display  of  logical  and  argu- 
mentative powers  as  is  manifested  in  this  essay  by 
one  so  young,  and  of  necessity  so  inexperienced  a 
candidate  for  medical  fame.  I  see  in  you  the  medical 
philosopher,  but  the  unpopular  pra(?titioner — Startle 
not  at  my  predi6lion  !  It  is  your  creditable  independ- 
ence of  mind,  of  thought,  and  of  expression,  that  will 


probabl}^  subject  3'ou  to  the  mortification  of  being 
excelled  by  the  mean,  the  sycophantic,  and  the  ignor- 
ant in  the  acquisition  of  patients. 

Nothing  but  some  fortunate  turn  of  circumstances, 
or  an  extensive  familj^  connedlion,  will  enable  a  person 
of  your  standing  to  cope  with  foil}-  and  licensed 
quacker3^  Your  paper  has  been  literall}'  used  up. 
I  have  lent  it  until  it  has  become  dilapidated  and 
obsairatcd.  It  is  illecrible.  I  ^^-ish  vou  would  obligre 
me  b}'  information  where  I  can  procure  more  copies. 
I  want  to  send  them  to  both  England  and  France. 
I  received  from  Boston  your  paper  on  disinfecting 
agents,  and  have  transmitted  it  to  the  Board  of 
Health  of  Savannah,  as  part  of  m}-  reply  to  a  letter 
addressed  to  me  b}-  that  bod}-,  asking  for  the  best 
information  to  guard  against  and  treat  the  cholera 
should  it  appear  among  them." 

Our  highest  authorit}-  in  the  medical  journalism'-' 
of  that  da}-  reviewed  the  pamphlet  in  terms  of  high 
commendation,  and  thus  quoted  freely  from  its  pages  : 

"  We  have  been  favored  b}"  Dr.  Henr}-  Bronson,  of 
Albany,  -uith  a  small  brochure  on  Medical  Logic,  of 
which  we  presume  he  is  the  author.  It  is  an  able 
produdlion  marked  by  sound  reasoning,  and  is  evi- 
dently the  offspring  of  a  cultivated  mind.  It  should 
be  as  widely  circulated  as  possible,  being  calculated 
to  lead  the  public  to  a  juster  appreciation  of  medical 

*  American  "Journal  of  Medical  Sciences,"  May,  1832,  p.  270. 


science,  and  a  more  discriminating  judgment  of  pro- 
fessional capacity." 

The  following  extradl  will  exhibit  the  obje(5l  of  the 
writer:  "The  conclusion,"  says  the  dodlor,  "to 
which  we  would  bring  our  remarks  is  this.  The  only 
safety  for  the  public  on  this  momentous  subjedl  is  to 
confine  the  practice  of  physic  to  men  of  truly  enlight- 
ened and  philosophic  minds.  But  this  can  never  be 
accomplished  until  the  public  at  large  are  made  more 
strongly  to  feel  the  multiplied  and  peculiar  difficulties 
attendant  on  medical  inquiries. 

It  is  from  enlightened  public  opinion  alone  that  we 
can  hope  for  the  removal  of  what  is  an  enormous  evil 
in  this  country — the  intrusion  (the  admission)  of 
ignorant  men  of  weak  and  undisciplined  minds  into 
the  medical  profession.  Public  opinion  ought  to 
check  the  facility  Avith  which  degrees  and  licences  to 
pra6lice  are  granted  in  some  of  our  medical  institu- 
tions. 

How  often  are  men  taken  from  the  plough  or  the 
anvil  with  only  the  bare  rudiments  of  an  English 
education,  and  in  two  or  three  years  turned  out  upon 
society  as  the  constituted  guardians  of  the  public 
health  ! 

Such  men  in  most  cases  could  not  sustain  them- 
selves for  an  hour,  either  in  the  profession  of  divinity 
or  of  law.     Their  utter  incapacity  for  philosophical 


investigation  would  be  manifest  to  all ;  but,  shielded 
by  the  mysteries  of  a  profession  which  the  public  eye 
cannot  penetrate,  the}^  too  gain  wealth  and  influence 
by  the  grossest  quackery  and  imposition.  If  our 
remarks  in  this  article,"  he  says  in  conclusion,  "  shall 
lead  any  of  our  readers  to  appreciate  more  highly 
the  amount  of  mental  discipline  which  ought  to  be 
demanded  in  medical  pradlitioners,  our  labors  will  be 
amply  repaid." 

These  pungent  but  truthful  lines  were  written 
more  than  sixty  years  ago,  in  a  spirit  of  righteous 
indignation  over  the  existence  of  a  monstrous  evil 
which,  even  in  that  early  time,  had  begun  to  cast  its 
shadow  over  all  the  colleges  of  this  country,  and 
threatened  to  become  inherent  in  our  entire  system 
of  medical  education ;  nor  has  this  danger  wholly 
ceased — nor  is  it  confined  to  medical  colleges  alone. 

The  descriptive  force  of  his  language  was  true 
then,  and  it  is  true  to-day  in  numerous  instances,  but 
not  universally  ;  j^et  history  repeats  itself  so  often 
that  these  peculiar  crimes  against  civilization,  com- 
mitted as  they  have  been  with  impunity  and  without 
causing  even  a  blush  of  shame,  or  much  less  the 
impeachment  of  the  oflfenders,  can  neither  be  for- 
gotten nor  forgiven. 

So  long  as  politicians  are  able  to  worm  themselves 
into  respedlable  and  honest  college  faculties,  and  to 


carry  with  tliem  the  political  caucus  system,  with  all 
which  that  implies,  such  things  will  be  repeated ;  and 
it  ought  not  to  be  a  matter  for  surprise,  but  for  alarm, 
if  men  without  any  medical  education  or  training 
have  been  able  to  purchase  outright,  for  silver  coin, 
medical  diplomas,  issued  as  the  euphonious  ritual 
still  has  it,  ''''pro  autoritate  7mhi  commissa^''  by  medi- 
cal colleges  claiming  to  be  respedlable, — while  recent 
events  seem  to  demonstrate  that  other  colleges,  less 
scrupulous,  bestow  medical  diplomas  for  consider- 
ations that  will  not  bear  the  slightest  inspection — and 
for  reasons  far  less  honorable  to  themselves,  but  more 
injurious  to  the  public,  because  they  lead  the  public 
mind  to  form  a  lower  estimate  of  the  honor  and  ability 
of  the  medical  profession  at  large  than  it  deserves. 

Dr.  Bronson  held  for  many  years  these  opinions, 
based  upon  fa6ls  that  had  come  within  his  own 
knowledge ;  and  thus,  in  the  earliest  periods  of  his 
professional  life,  as  on  all  suitable  occasions  later,  he 
earnestly  contended  for  the  prevalence  of  honest 
methods  of  admission  to  the  ranks  of  the  profession ; 
and  urged  that  examinations  for  degrees  should  be  of 
such  a  charadler,  and  so  condudled,  that  a  diploma  in 
medicine  would  pass  current  everywhere  as  a  safe 
public  guarantee  that  its  possessor  had  been  well 
instru6led,  and  was  reasonably  well  qualified  to  take 
into  his  hands  the  "  care  of  the  public  health." 


Men  die,  but  institutions  live. 

Men  die,  and  their  histories  may  die  with  them. 
Institutions  live ;  their  histories  never  die — but,  good 
or  bad,  the}^  live  forever — imperishable.  It  is  the 
influence  of  such  considerations  that  impart  to  the 
every-day  fadls  of  common  life  the  power  to  mould 
the  institutions  and  the  destinies  of  mankind. 

The  year  1832  was  distinguished  b}-  the  most  dis- 
astrous historical  event  that  has  characterized  any  of 
the  years  of  this  centur}^,  with  the  exception  of  the 
years  of  our  civil  war  ;  for  it  was  in  the  earl}-  summer 
of  that  5'ear  that  our  continent  was  first  visited  b}?- 
Asiatic  Cholera. 

The  pestilence  was  brought  to  our  shores  from 
Dublin,  by  an  emigrant  ship  arriving  at  Quebec, 
having  lost  on  the  passage  some  fort\^  persons  b\-  the 
disease, — the  sur^avors  made  their  wa}'  to  Montreal. 
As  rapidl}'  as  the  tidings  could  be  spread  by  the  flee- 
ing people,  the  disease  itself  was  carried  along  all 
lines  of  communication,  until  in  ever}-  habitation, 
to  the  hovels  of  the  poor,  from  the  palaces  of  the  rich, 
the  angel  of  death  had  set  his  seal. 

At  Albanj',  such  was  the  confidence  felt  b}-  her 
citizens  in  Dr.  Bronson's  peculiar  qualifications  for 


the  investigation  of  abstruse  questions  in  medical 
science,  and  such  was  the  impression  he  had  made 
upon  that  critical  community,  as  a  man  of  distin- 
guished ability,  that  he  was  commissioned  by  several 
prominent  gentlemen,  at  whose  head  was  the  Mayor, 
and  dire6led  to  proceed  to  Montreal,  and  other  points 
in  Canada  infe6led  with  the  pestilence,  and  availing 
himself  of  every  opportunity  to  study  the  natural 
history  of  the  disease — its  modes  of  propagation — its 
treatment  in  the  North,  together  with  its  results,  to 
report  to  the  committee  also  such  hygienic  measures 
as  he  would  recommend  as  reliable  preventives. 

Inspired  by  a  profound  sense  of  his  moral  obliga- 
tions to  God,  and  to  his  fellow  men,  he  promptly 
accepted  this  call  to  duty  ;  and  bidding  farewell  to 
his  young  wife,  and  to  all  he  held  dear,  he  took  his 
life  in  his  hand,  and  hastened  to  the  death-stricken 
city,  that  he  might  gather  there  new  knowledge  of  an 
unknown  and  deadly  pestilence,  for  the  benefit  of  his 
race. 

For  a  good  man  some  may  even  dare  to  die ;  but  to 
hazard  deliberately  the  extinAion  of  a  pure  and 
invaluable  life,  in  order  that  the  vi(5lims  of  every 
form  of  vice,  wickedness  and  moral  degradation  may 
live,  implies  the  possession  of  attributes  too  seldom 
met  with,  and  indicates  the  highest  possible  devotion 
to  duty. 


Dr.  Bronson's  first  letter  from  Montreal  was  brief, 
merely  announcing  his  arrival  there  on  the  twenty- 
first  of  June,  and  giving  his  first  impressions  of  the 
actual  conditions  in  such  a  crowded  city,  destitute  of 
sewers,  and  of  all  modern  sanitary  appliances,  under 
the  sudden  invasion  of  universal  pestilence,  and  among 
an  ignorant  population  surrounded  by  circumstances 
favorable  for  the  rapid  extension  and  quickly  fatal 
termination  of  a  disease  never  before  seen  upon  our 
shores.  Under  the  present  advanced  state  of  our 
knowledge,  and  the  greater  familiarity  of  the  public 
mind  with  the  exigencies  of  life,  it  would  probably  be 
difficult  for  us  to  appreciate  clearly  the  wild  terror  of 
our  entire  population  as  they  helplessly  awaited  the 
approach  of  death,  from  which  they  saw  no  way  of 
escape. 

But  during  the  prevalence  of  the  disease,  and  its 
progress  over  our  continent,  the  important  fadl  was 
observed  that,  the  inmates  of  prisons  in  this  country 
and  in  Europe,  who  were  absolutely  cut  off  from  all 
contact  with  the  outside  world,  were  entirel}'^  exempt 
from  the  infedlion. 

I  was  myself  old  enough  to  remember  the  fadl  that 
so  fully  was  the  condition  of  isolation  accepted  as  the 
only  preventive  means  possible  against  the  cholera 
infedlion,  that  in  many  instances  men  of  the  highest 
intelligence  stood  on  guard  over  their  domains,  pre- 


pared  to  fire  upon  all  intruders ;  while  placards  and 
watcli-dogs  served  as  additional  defences.  But  in 
their  own  families  no  deviations  from  the  accustomed 
rules  of  diet,  including  the  use  of  fresh  fruits  and 
vegetables  from  their  own  gardens,  were  permitted. 
For  those  who  lived  sensibly  no  change  in  diet  or 
regimen  was  advised. 

The  skeptical  mind  of  our  philosophic  friend 
refused  to  receive  as  fa6ls  the  unsupported  statements 
of  the  crowd  of  observers  who  pressed  forward,  each 
with  his  bundle  of  fadls,  offering  to  prove  that  Asiatic 
cholera  was  not  a  contagious  disease,  but  was  only  a 
flux  common  in  the  summer  months,  but  void  of  all 
danger  if  checked  in  its  early  stage  by  some  anodyne 
astringent  nostrum.  But  another  array  of  real  fa6ls, 
presented  by  so  competent  an  observer  as  Dr.  Bron- 
son,  brushed  away  this  defe6live  reasoning  based 
upon  false  fa6ls,  and  brought  the  profession  and  the 
people  face  to  face  with  the  all-important  truth  that 
cholera  was  from  the  first  moment  a  definite  disease 
— sui  generis — and  not  merely  a  diarrhoea,  which  if 
negledled  might  become  cholera — it  was  communi- 
cable— and  therefore  a  contagious  and  infective  dis- 
ease that  was  conveyed  along  the  lines  of  public 
travel  by  persons  and  their  baggage — was  attended 
by  strange  symptoms  never  before  seen,  and  termi- 
nated fatally  and  peculiarly  in  a  few  hours. 


I  need  not  here  go  further  into  his  statement  of 
fadls  and  reasoning  before  the  Albany  committee ; 
but  he  early  improves  the  opportunity  to  disabuse  the 
professional  and  public  mind  of  the  prevalent  delusion 
that  the  chlorides  of  lime  and  soda  are  in  any  sense 
dismfcElants^ — though  thej^  ma}^  be  in  some  degree 
useful  in  dissipating  foul-smelling  odors.  We  know, 
however,  that  the}-  have  no  effedl  to  mitigate  the 
dangers  of  disease. 

I  do  not  forget,  IMr.  President,  that  I  am  not 
addressing  a  strictly  professional  audience ;  nor  do  I 
cease  to  remember  with  pleasure,  that  the  people  of 
culture  who  are  accustomed  to  assemble  in  these  halls 
are  alwa3's  interested  in  whatever  pertains  to  scientific 
knowledge,  particularly  such  as  relates  to  dicoveries 
in  medical  science,  or  concerns  our  bodiU'  health,  or 
the  personality  of  those  whose  lives  have  been  devoted 
to  the  work  of  ministering  to  the  health  of  others. 

I  may  assume,  therefore,  that  in  the  endeavor  to 
set  before  you  some  of  the  great  qualities  of  our  dis- 
tinguished friend,  neither  the  events  of  his  profes- 
sional life  in  their  historical  relations  to  the  ph3-sical 
welfare  of  the  world,  nor  some  allusions  to  the  obscure 
medical  theories  of  the  past,  could  well  be  omitted. 

Dr.  Bronson  loved  with  all  the  force  of  his  moral 
nature  the  profession  of  his  choice,  and  while  stand- 
ing ever  ready  to  break  a  lance  in  its  defense  against 


the  assaults  of  presuming  ignorance,  or  tlie  unblushing 
chicanery  of  the  crafty,  he  was  ever  ready  to  instru6l 
the  one,  and  enlighten  or  expose  the  other.  He 
had  a  remarkable  insight  into  the  hidden  mysteries 
of  nature,  which  to  many  others  was  a  sealed  book, 
and  beyond  their  comprehension.  He  had  also  very 
definite  ideas  as  to  the  limitations  of  science  and  art 
in  the  treatment  and  cure  of  diseases.  He  was 
eminently  successful  in  tracing  out  the  hidden  causes 
of  disease,  and  in  palliating  their  painful  or  disturb- 
ing e£fe6ls,  but  I  should  add,  moreover,  that  he  was 
accustomed  to  say  that  he  did  not  know  that  he  had 
ever  cured  anybody. 

While  he  had  an  intelligent  faith  in  the  powers  of 
a  few  medicinal  agents  to  relieve  the  sympathetic 
disturbances  of  fun6lions,  caused  by  organic  disease 
or  other  agencies,  he  had,  in  common  with  all  the 
other  great  physicians  of  history,  little  or  no  rational 
faith  in  the  power  of  drugs  to  cure  disease.  Freely 
admitting  that  recoveries  from  disease  occurred  under 
almost  all  forms  of  treatment  in  proportions  some- 
what similar,  he  could  not,  with  all  his  candor,  be  an 
advocate  of  any  exclusive  system  of  treatment. 

It  has  been  said  of  him  that,  on  one  occasion,  he 
received  from  a  relative  an  urgent  letter  asking  for 
advice  in  the  case  of  a  child  sick  with  the  measles, 
and  whose  case,  it  was  feared,  the  attending  physician 


did  not  understand,  because  he  was  giving  the  patient 
a  great  variet}'  of  medicines,  at  short  inter\-als,  and 
the  child  was  becoming  rapidly  worse.  Without  stop- 
ping to  discuss  the  merits  of  this  or  that  path}-,  for 
which  he  cared  nothing,  he  took  a  large  sheet  of  paper 
and  wrote  in  the  middle  of  the  great  page  this  pre- 
scription : 

Take  a  white  china  cup 

with  nothing  in  it  ; 

Turn  the  handle  toward  the 

north-west,  and  give  a 

teaspoonful  every  hour. 

The  little  patient  will  soon  be  well. 

This  was  a  plain  illustration  of  a  great  truth  con- 
tained in  the  aphorism  seldom  heard  in  those  daj's, 
that  ''  the  viajority  of  diseases  are  self-liinited — they 
come  and  tarry ^  and  disappear  according  to  natural 
law — if  nobody  interferes^ 

Let  us  pause  for  a  moment,  and  ask  ourselves  the 
question,  what  would  be  the  condition  of  the  human 
race  to-da}-,  if  the  rise  and  progress  of  diseases  were 
not  regulated  by  laii\  and  what  would  doubtless  happen 
to  the  world  if  ever}-  man  were  to  become  a  law  unto 
himself,  and  could,  at  will,  turn  the  dial  backward  for 
two  or  three  thousand  j-ears — before  medical  science 
was  bom — to  the  time  when  ignorance  and  tradition 
were  almost  the  onl}-  guides  ?     I  xtxy  well  remember 


tlie  dawning  of  the  brilliant  light  which  followed  that 
dark  age,  when  men,  entirely  ignorant  of  the  uni- 
versal law  that  the  majority  of  diseases  are  self-limited^ 
persisted  year  after  year,  for  successive  generations, 
in  their  willful,  because  unthinking  blindness,  in 
compelling  the  defenceless  sick  to  swallow  a  great 
variety  of  nauseous  drugs,  too  often  fatal  in  them- 
selves, while  they  scrupulously  denied  to  their 
patients  the  use  of  nature's  great  remedies,  a  cup  of 
cold  water  and  a  morsel  of  bread.  It  would  be  inter- 
esting to  describe  to  you,  did  the  occasion  permit,  an 
hour's  debate  in  which  Dr.  Bronson  held  the  fixed 
attention  of  his  audience,  in  his  discussion  of  the 
question,  "  What  have  been  the  operation  and  the 
controlling  influences  of  natural  law  in  the  history 
and  development  of  the  human  race?" 

During  his  remarks  he  spoke  solemnly  of  the 
responsibility  of  those  men,  weak,  well-meaning,  but 
industriously  ignorant,  who  closed  their  minds  to  the 
truths  of  scientific  observation,  and  refused  to  wel- 
come the  light  that  was  pervading  the  world.  But 
the  question  reaches  a  magnitude  and  importance 
entirely  too  great  for  this  occasion,  though  it  affords 
us  a  glimpse  of  the  natural  scope  and  grasp  of  his 
cultivated  mind. 

The  Albany  letters  of  Dr.  Bronson,  of  which  I  now 
present  you  with  the  first  one  of  the  series  of  six,  were 


immediately  given  to  the  press,  and  were  copied  by  all 
newspapers  on  this  continent  and  in  foreign  lands.* 
They  constituted  the  earliest  and  most  complete  dis- 
sertation on  the  nature  and  treatment  of  Asiatic 
cholera  then  in  existence,  and  written  as  it  were  at 
the  bedside,  the}^  furnished  a  graphic  account  of  the 
unchecked  march  of  the  pestilence  across  the  conti- 
nent, studied  and  recorded  under  the  careful  observa- 
tion of  a  most  competent  investigator.  His  views  of 
the  pathology  and  proper  treatment  of  cholera  were 
ever3^where  approved  and  adopted ;  and  they  gave 
direction  to  medical  pra6lice  throughout  the  world, 
until  in  after  years  they  were  modified  by  the  great 
advances  made  in  therapeutic  knowledge. 

Unconsciously  to  himself,  as  I  believe,  the  second- 
ary, but  more  transient  effedl:  of  these  letters  was  to 
cause  the  name  of  Henry  Bronson  to  become  famil- 
iarly known  to  medical  men,  wherever  the  pestilence 
gathered  its  vidlims  ;  and  if  these  events  had  occurred 
in  the  present  generation,  and  if  he  had  so  chosen,  he 
certainly  would  have  received,  as  he  would  have 
merited,  the  highest  civic  and  professional  honors  that 
could  properly  have  been  conferred  upon  him. 

*In  the  year  1833,  Dr.  Martyn  Paine  of  New  York  published  a  History 
of  Cholera  at  Montreal,  made  up  of  replies  to  catechetical  questions  he  had 
asked  of  Dr.  Holmes  of  Montreal,  with  regard  to  certain  points  which  he 
evidently  desired  should  correspond  to  certain  previously  formed  opinions. 


Montreal^  Jmie  21,  12,  M.,  1832. 

I  have  now  only  time  to  say  that  I  arrived  here  this  morn- 
ing. Such  a  scene  of  desolation  as  this  city  exhibits,  I  never 
witnessed.  Business  is  entirely  suspended ;  the  stores  are 
closed,  and  the  streets  deserted.  Although  this  is  a  holiday 
with  the  Catholics,  scarcely  a  human  face  is  to  be  seen  abroad. 

The  mortality  in  Montreal  by  the  present  disease  is  unexam- 
pled even  in  the  history  of  the  Epidemic  Cholera.  The  num- 
ber of  cases  oflEicially  reported  is  about  3,000,  and  the  number 
of  deaths  about  800.  Many  of  the  physicians,  owing  to 
sickness,  did  not  report  at  all  on  some  of  the  most  fatal  days. 
Besides,  a  great  many  have  died  whom  no  physician  ever  saw. 

The  disease  is  now  evidently  on  the  decline.  But  few  new 
cases  have  occurred  within  the  last  12  hours.  However 
within  the  last  48  hours  a  much  greater  proportion  of  the 
attacked  than  before  has  been  the  higher  orders,  and  those  of 
temperate  and  regular  habits.  Some  very  valuable  lives  were 
lost  last  night.  The  disease  still  prevails  to  a  considerable 
extent  in  lyaprairie,  and  is  extending  rapidly  into  the  country 
to  the  south. 

I  am  now  about  to  visit  the  emigrant's  hospital,  where 
numbers  lie  ill  of  the  worst  forms  of  the  epidemic. 

[first  letter.] 
Montreal,  Friday,  22d  June,  12  0'  cVk  M. 

Gentlemen — It  is  with  pleasure  that  I  can  state  to  you, 
that  the  cholera  is  rapidly  abating  here.  Some  of  the  princi- 
pal physicians  have  told  me  this  morning  that  they  had  not 
met  with  a  new  case  to-day.  The  cases  which  now  occur  are 
many  of  them  anomalous,  assuming  the  appearance  of  con- 
tinued typhus  fever.  The  countenances  of  the  people  begin 
to  look  cheerful. 

During  the  prevalence  of  all  epidemic  diseases,  within  the 
limits  to  which  they  extend,  there  is  a  predisposition,  occasioned 
by  the  operation  of  some  common  causes,  to  the  prevailing  dis- 
order.    This  predisposition  may  be  stronger  or  weaker,  but  it 


is  so  strong  in  all  cases,  that  injurious  causes,  which  were  before 
successfull}-  resisted,  are  attended  with  \nolent  or  fatal  eflfecls, 
kindling  into  a  blaze  the  latent  seeds  of  disease.  This  state  is 
not  incompatible  with  perfect  health,  though  it  is  commonly 
manifested,  particularly  in  the  more  malignant  epidemics,  by 
some  very  unequivocal  symptoms.  It  has  been  remarked, 
whenever  cholera  has  appeared  on  both  continents,  that  the 
whole  population  within  the  sphere  of  its  range,  have  expe- 
rienced some  of  the  s>*mptoms  which  are  usually  premonitory 
of  its  attack,  such  as  griping  pains  or  oppression  at  the 
stomach,  depraved  digestion,  etc.  This  I  have  noticed  in  all 
the  regions  where  cholera  has  prevailed,  from  Whitehall  to 
this  place.  1  have  supposed  these  sensations  to  be  independ- 
ent of  anxiety  or  fear,  because  I  have  found  them  where  they 
could  not  have  been  supposed  to  exist.  It  is  these  symptoms 
which  indicate  the  predisposition  to  cholera,  and  which  assume 
the  decided  character  of  disease,  bj^  the  operation  of  the  slight- 
est causes,  but  which  may  continue  without  manifesting  such 
a  character  if  all  hurtful  agents  are  carefulh*  avoided.  In  this 
condition  of  the  body  there  is  required  the  most  delicate  man- 
agement— a  strict  regard  to  a  thousand  trifling  circumstances 
which  at  other  times  would  require  no  attention.  The  system 
is  in  the  condition  of  a  delicate  balance,  the  equilibrium  of 
which  is  disturbed  by  the  weight  of  a  feather. 

The  causes  which  have  a  tendency  to  disturb  this  health}*  bal- 
ance, are  called  by  phj'sicians  the  existiyig  causes  of  diseases. 
They  are  as  numerous  as  the  agents  which  are  capable  of  acting 
on  the  human  s\-stem,  and  are  such  as  food  and  drink,  motion 
and  rest,  heat  and  cold,  sleeping  and  waking,  emotions  of  the 
mind,  etc.  On  a  careful  attention  to  these,  ever^-thing  hinges 
during  the  prevalence  of  a  mortal  epidemic. 

The  Montreal  physicians  saw  their  importance,  and  very 
judiciously  insisted  on  their  strict  regulation.  Those  here, 
who  have  escaped  the  maladj-,  probabh-  owe  it  to  the  com- 
mand they  exercised  over  the  exciting  causes.  Excess  of 
every  description  has  been  followed  by  almost  certain  death. 
The  least  irregularity  in  diet  or  drink,  whether  in  quality-  or 

26 


quantity,  too  severe  or  protradled  exercise,  bodily  or  mental, 
or  exposure  to  a  hot  sun,  etc.,  have  rarely  been  unattended  with 
injurious  or  fatal  consequences.  Those  who  have  presumed  on 
the  vigor  of  their  constitution,  or  yielded  in  the  shghtest  to  an 
unhallowed  appetite,  have  generally  paid  the  forfeit  of  their 
lives.  On  the  contrary,  those  whose  constitution  had  not  been 
previously  impaired  by  intemperance  of  any  species,  whose  hab- 
its during  the  epidemic,  were  sober  and  regular,  whose  bodies 
were  not  debilitated  by  too  protradted  exertion,  whose  minds 
were  undisturbed  by  apprehension,  escaped  almost  to  a  man. 

Cholera  has  stood  up  here,  as  it  has  done  everywhere,  the 
advocate  of  temperance.  It  has  pleaded  most  eloquently,  and 
with  tremendous  eflfedl.  The  disease  has  searched  out  the 
haunt  of  the  drunkard,  and  has  seldom  left  it  without  bearing 
away  its  victim.  Bven  moderate  drinkers  have  been  but  a  lit- 
tle better  off.  Ardent  spirits,  in  any  shape  and  in  all  quanti- 
ties, have  been  highly  detrimental.  Some  temperate  men 
resorted  to  it  during  the  prevalence  of  the  malady,  as  a  pre- 
ventive, or  to  remove  the  feeling  of  uneasiness  about  the 
stomach,  or  for  the  purpose  of  drowning  their  apprehensions, 
but  they  did  it  at  their  peril.  It  is  believed  never  to  have 
done  good,  but  nearly  always  injury.  The  slight  indigestion 
which  was  so  common,  was  best  relieved  by  regulating  the 
kind  and  quantity  of  food,  and  by  great  moderation  in  the  use 
of  the  ordinary  drinks. 

The  disastrous  effecfts  of  that  tampering  with  medicines  which 
is  so  prevalent  during  the  ravages  of  an  epidemic,  were  here 
witnessed  on  an  extensive  scale.  This  evil  was  of  such  serious 
magnitude,  that  an  injundlion  was  laid  on  apothecaries  not  to 
sell  drugs  except  on  the  order  of  a  physician.  It  was  a  com- 
mon thing  in  the  commencement  of  the  sickness,  for  persons  in 
health  to  take  vomits,  purges,  etc.,  as  preventives.  The  con- 
sequences were  often  fatal.  It  was  truly  considered  that  a  man 
who  is  well  can  not  be  made  better  by  medicine  ;  but  on  the 
contrary,  is  sure  to  receive  detriment.  In  almost  every  in- 
stance where  severe  medicines  were  taken  for  the  symptoms  of 
predisposition,   an    attack    followed.     The   system   was    thus, 


as  it  were,  thrown  off  its  balance,  and  of  course  put  into  the 
very  situation  in  which  it  is  most  susceptible  to  an  attack. 
Let  the  wares  of  the  apothecan-  be  reserved  for  the  hour  of 
decided  sickness.  Then,  if  adapted  to  the  case,  they  cannot 
be  too  promptly  used. 

Those  emotions  which  agitate  deepl)-  and  durably  the  mind, 
have  at  all  times  a  very  prejudicial  effedl  upon  the  health  ;  but 
when  there  is  a  strong  predisposition  to  disease,  and  during 
the  raging  of  a  sweeping  epidemic,  they  are  productive  of  the 
worst  consequences.  That  fearful  pestilence  which  is  now 
passing  over  Montreal,  has  produced  a  degree  of  agitation  in 
the  minds  of  the  people,  which  has  probably  never  been  felt 
before.  The  stoutest  hearts  were  unable  to  resist,  but  were 
overwhelmed  in  the  torrent.  Numerous  cases  of  sickness  and 
manj-  deaths,  were  the  consequence  of  this  high  state  of  excite- 
ment. It  is  impossible  to  tell  in  how  many  instances  a  predis- 
position which  might  never  have  resulted  in  anj- thing  serious, 
has  been  kindled  into  a  blaze  from  causes  purely  mental ;  but 
doubtless,  this  has  been  the  fact  in  a  vast  number.  It  has  often 
been  said  of  cholera,  that  as  manj-  die  of  fear  as  of  the  disease. 
Though  this  ma}-  not  be  literally  true,  j'et  it  may  be  truly 
said  that  hundreds  die  of  cholera  excited  bj^  fear.  Its  operation 
is  sometimes  tJidirecl,  heightening  susceptibility,  and  laj-ing 
the  grounds  of  a  strong  predisposition,  or  dij-e^i  acling  upon  a 
previous  predisposition,  and  proving  the  immediate  cause  of  an 
attack  of  the  reigning  maladj*. 

Should  the  cholera  ever  reach  Albanj-,  means  to  calm  the 
passions,  and  to  produce  equanimit}'  of  mind  and  fortitude, 
cannot  be  too  faithfulh'  used.  The  public  should  be  prepared 
for  an  attack,  so  that  when  the  enemy  comes,  thej-  need  not  be 
taken  hy  surprise.     A  panic  is  of  all  things  to  be  deprecated. 

Yesterday  p.  m.  the  board  of  health  reported  84  deaths  from 
cholera  for  the  24  hours  preceding. 

P.  S.  Drs.  Rhinelander  and  DeKaj'-,  from  New  York  City, 
arrived  this  day. 

With  great  respedl,  I  remain,  gentlemen,  j-ours,  etc., 

Henry  Bronson. 


[second  letter.] 

Montreal,  June  2j,  i8j2. 

My  Dear  Sir — The  cholera  is  rapidly  subsiding  here. 
Yesterday  there  were  reported  37  burials  from  cholera.  The 
disease,  we  hear,  is  extending  in  all  diredlions. 

The  authorities  of  Albany  cannot  be  too  prompt  and  too 
vigilant  in  the  purification  of  the  city,  in  way  of  preparation 
for  cholera,  and  though  the  extensiveness  and  fatality  to  the  dis- 
ease are  not  necessarily  in  exacft  proportion  to  the  amount  of 
public  and  private  filth,  it  is  still  proved,  from  a  field  of  obser- 
vation as  wide  as  the  world,  that  its  diffusion  is  promoted,  and 
its  mortality  increased  by  uncleanliness,  of  whatever  descrip- 
tion. Its  generally  limited  spread  in  the  south  of  Europe,  and 
particularly  in  Britain,  has  been  attributed  in  a  great  measure 
(and  not  without  some  reason,)  to  the  care  and  vigilance  which 
was  observed  in  preparing  for  its  reception  by  removing  every 
source  of  corruption.  Montreal  is  at  the  present  time  in  a 
peculiarly  favorable  situation  for  the  reception  and  propagation 
of  cholera,  if  the  accumulation  of  masses  of  putrifying  materials 
are  indicative  of  such  a  situation.  IvCt  neighboring  cities  read 
an  example  from  her  melancholy  fate,  of  the  danger  of  negledt- 
ing  purity. 

All  decomposing  animal  and  vegetable  relics  should  be  re- 
moved without  the  bounds  of  the  city.  They  should  be  removed 
if  possible.  Nothing  short  of  this  will  with  any  certainty  effecft 
the  desired  objecft.  Covering  up  is  calculated  to  conceal,  not  to 
destroy.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  quick-lime  and 
the  chlorides  should  never  be  trusted  to  when  removal  is  prac- 
ticable. It  strikes  me  that  the  confidence  put  in  them  is  dan- 
gerous, and  calculated  to  divert  the  mind  from  the  true  and 
only  effedlual  mode  of  purifying.  I  dare  not  say  that  their 
use  can  never  be  of  any  service,  but  I  risk  nothing  in  afl&rming 
that  they  are  not  substitutes  for  real  cleanliness.  I  well  know 
that  the  chlorides,  in  which  most  confidence  seems  to  be  placed, 
destroy    chemically    the   fetid   gases,    but   I    also    know   that 


decomposing  animal  and  vegetable  matter  gives  out  an  agent 
or  agents  of  the  most  deleterious  nature  independent  of  those 
gases,  and  sometimes  unaccompanied  bj'  them.  This  facl  is 
well  known  among  medical  men.  As  for  the  chlorides  destroj-- 
ing  the  principle  of  contagion  or  infeclion,  there  is  no  proof  of 
it.  Besides,  the  principle  of  contagion  is  not  an  elementary  or 
a  compounded  gas  such  as  chemists  are  accustomed  to  catch  in 
their  receivers.  It  is  not  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  nor  carbu- 
retted  hydrogen,  nor  phosphoretted  hydrogen,  which  chlorine 
is  calculated  to  decompose,  but  a  specific  animal  secretion,  sui 
generis.  All  which  is  said  in  respect  to  the  chlorides  is  said 
with  a  reference  to  the  present  e\*idence  in  their  favor.  They 
have  been  used  here  during  the  prevalence  of  the  present  epi- 
demic to  a  consideral  extent,  but  without  any  known  good 
effec~t.  The  Montreal  phj-sicians,  as  far  as  I  know,  put  no 
confidence  in  them. 

Of  the  efiicacy  of  free  ventilation  as  a  means  of  cleanliness  I 
need  say  nothing.  As  a  preventive  to  the  introducftion  and 
spread  of  epidemic  and  contagious  diseases,  and  of  cholera  in 
particular,  and  as  possessed  of  a  modifying  influence  upon  their 
characler,  it  deserves  intent  consideration. 

I  take  it  for  granted  that  there  will  be  provided  in  Albany, 
in  anticipation,  comfortable  and  commodious  receptacles  for 
the  sick  poor.  When  the  cholera  broke  out  in  Montreal, 
nothing  was  provided  in  this  way,  nor  indeed  for  many  days 
afterwards.  For  the  want  of  a  hospital  patients  were  carried 
into  the  open  field,  and  left  to  die  uncovered.  At  last  some 
sheds  of  rough  boards  were  erected  without  flooring,  with  holes 
sawed  in  the  ends  for  doors,  and  in  the  sides  for  windows. 
Some  straw  was  laid  upon  the  groimd  and  the  sick  placed 
upon  it,  when  of  course  they  soon  saw  the  end  of  their  misery. 
It  afforded  little  proteclion  from  the  rain.  Such  \\Tetched 
hovels  for  the  reception  of  those  ill  of  so  severe  a  disease  as 
cholera,  requiring  for  its  cure  assiduous  attention  and  all  those 
favorable  circtunstances  which  the  best  regulated  and  pro\-ided 
hospitals  can  afford,  were  little  better  than  nothing.  Almost 
all  died  who  were  carried  to  them. 


During  the  height  of  the  epidemic  here  many  of  the  physi- 
cians were  unable  to  attend  to  one-half  of  their  calls.  They 
could  often  do  no  more  than  hear  a  brief  statement  of  the  case 
from  a  messenger  and  send  the  medicine.  Frequently  they 
could  not  do  even  this.  That  none  need  be  entirely  deprived 
of  the  means  of  relief,  depots  of  medicines  were  established  in 
various  parts  of  the  city,  designated  by  a  yellow  flag,  and 
placed  under  the  care  of  a  medical  student  or  some  trusty  per- 
sons where  those  in  the  neighborhood  might  resort  for  reme- 
dies. It  is  true,  medicine  could  be  used  with  little  certainty 
or  success  under  these  circumstances,  but  perhaps  the  best 
alternative  was  adopted. 

No  ef&cient  measures  seem  to  have  been  taken  here  by  the 
authorities  or  citizens  at  the  onset  of  the  disease,  and  after  it 
had  begun  to  carry  off  its  scores  per  day,  there  was  such  an 
universal  agitation  of  mind  and  paralysis  of  all  the  faculties, 
that  nobody  was  able  to  adt  with  decision  and  judgment.  In 
this  state  of  consternation  it  could  not  be  expedted  that  amends 
were  to  be  made  for  previous  negle(5t  and  inefl&ciency.  Every- 
thing that  was  done  appears  to  have  been  done  with  a  tremu- 
lous hand  and  with  a  wavering  purpose,  plainly  indicating  the 
doubt,  hesitation  and  terror  which  ruled  within.  Where  there 
seemed  to  be  aclion,  there  was  in  truth  only  bustle.  Courage 
was  only  recklessness.  Firmness  was  but  the  stupefadtion  of 
fear.  Every  man,  looking  at  his  present  hour  as  among  his 
last,  was  intent  only  on  his  own  safety.  The  welfare  of  his 
neighbor  was  a  foreign  concern.  While  in  this  state  of  anxiety 
to  secure  his  own  life,  he  was  in  the  very  condition  in  which 
he  was  most  likely  to  lose  it. 

I  shall  hereafter  speak  of  the  nature,  origin,  mode  of  propa- 
gation, and  treatment  of  cholera  in  the  places  I  have  visited. 
I  will  only  now  say,  that  from  what  I  have  seen,  I  am  per- 
suaded that  the  disease  is  often  spread  by  intercourse  or  conta- 
gion from  one  place  to  another.  Though  I  have  no  doubt  that 
it  may  originate  spontaneously,  and  often  does  so,  at  the  same 
time  it  seems  sometimes  to  be  carried  from  one  place  to 
another. 


[third  letter.] 

Montreal,  June  2j. 

I  feel  disposed  to  put  much  stress  upon  what  was  said  j'es- 
terday  respecting  the  chlorides,  more  particularly  as  I  find 
they  are  likeh-  to  be  extensiveh*  used  and  confided  in.  This 
confidence  I  conceive  to  be  misplaced  and  imminently  danger- 
ous. I  have  heretofore  examined  this  subject  with  some  care, 
and  can  find  ven,-  little  testimony  in  their  favor  ;  certainly 
none  which  can  entitle  them  to  consideration,  when  we  have 
at  our  command  the  more  effectual  means  of  cleanliness,  such 
as  the  removal  of  the  offending  cause,  ventilation,  the  free  use 
of  pure  water,  draining,  &c.  I  have  enquired  again  of  some 
of  the  most  intelligent  physicians  of  Montreal,  the  result  of 
their  obsen'ations  on  the  use  of  these  supposed  disinfecting 
agents  during  the  present  epidemic,  but  can  find  nothing  cal- 
culated to  satisfy  the  minds  of  those  who  advocate  their  utility. 
Professional  opinion  is  decidedly  against  them  here.  Some 
have  supposed  that  they  have  actually  predisposed  the  body  to 
an  attack  of  the  disease,  by  their  irritating  and  noxious  agency 
upon  the  sj-stem.  This  is  ver^-  probable  from  the  known  effecl 
of  chlorine  upon  the  animal  powers.  Though  it  ma}-  not  be 
respired  except  in  minute  quantities,  y&t  it  should  be  recol- 
lected that  during  the  prevalence  of  cholera,  there  is  such  an 
exquisite  susceptibilitj'  to  the  action  of  all  agents,  (the  consti- 
tution giving  wa}'  to  the  current  disease  by  the  application  of 
the  slightest  causes)  that  an  atmosphere  containing  only  a 
minute  portion  of  the  agent  so  obnoxious  to  health  as  this, 
may  nevertheless  prove  detrimental.  It  maj-  prove  th.&  feather 
which  turns  the  scale  against  a  man  who  is  laboring  under  a 
strong  predisposition.  I  hope  these  remarks  will  not  be  set 
down  to  the  account  of  prejudice  or  superficial  examination, 
though  they  ma\-  be  founded  in  error.  Whatever  be  their  just- 
ness or  value,  they  have  been  the  result  of  considerable  reflec- 
tion and  inquir}-.  I  shall  cheerfally  ascribe  disinfecting  pow- 
ers to  chlorine,  as  soon  as  a  sufficient  ntmiber  oi  facts  have 
been  brought  forward  to  establish  so  important  a  point  ;  not 


before.  Its  use  is  at  present  empirical  ;  not  founded  in  science, 
nor  the  result  of  dedudlion  from  observation.  When  confided 
in,  it  is  productive  of  hazard  from  the  neglect  of  true  purifica- 
tion which  it  induces.  If  an  ounce  or  two  of  chloride  of  lime 
is  supposed  adequate  to  render  any  quantity  of  filth  innoxious, 
man,  moved  by  the  ordinary  labor-saving  motives,  is  easily 
persuaded  to  trust  to  it,  and  to  disregard  the  only  effedlual  but 
more  laborious  process  of  removing  the  offending  substance. 

Fires  were  kindled  and  cannon  and  musketry  discharged  here 
during  the  height  of  the  epidemic,  to  disinfedt,  as  it  was  said, 
the  atmosphere.  These  means  have  been  often  used  for  the 
same  purpose  during  the  raging  of  pestilence,  but  with  no 
known  advantage.  Tar  and  sulphur  were  burned  with  the 
same  design,  and  with  a  similar  effect.  Camphor  was  a  favor- 
ite article  with  the  timid  ;  that  is  to  say,  with  a  great  part  of 
the  community.  It  was  put  into  a  bag  and  worn  round  the 
neck  ;  it  was  carried  in  the  pocket ;  it  was  sprinkled  in  the 
handkerchief.  If  two  passed  each  other  in  the  street,  the  nose 
was  diligently  plied  with  the  camphor  bag  by  the  respective 
parties.  Every  straggling  beggar  or  unfortunate  emigrant  was 
supposed  to  personify  the  cholera,  and  if  dire  necessity  ren- 
dered it  necessary  to  approach  him,  the  camphor  bag  was  an 
indispensable  companion.  It  would  have  been  well  had  these 
"preventives"  been  attended  with  only  negative  effedls. 
It  is  the  opinion  of  some  of  the  physicians  that  they  were 
sometimes  positively  injurious.  Some  of  them  exhale  noxious 
fumes,  which  when  respired  act  injuriously  upon  the  system. 
The  effluvium  of  camphor  is  powerful  and  penetrating,  which 
cannot  but  do  harm  when  constantly  in  contadl  with  the  sensi- 
ble olfactories.  The  same  obje(5tion  may  be  made  to  all  those 
substances  which  give  out  strong  and  disagreeable  odor,  which 
was  made  to  the  chlorides,  with  respect  to  their  eflfedls  on  pre- 
disposition. 

I  have  before  alluded  to  the  too  frequent  and  indiscriminate 
use  of  medicine  as  a  preventive  in  cholera.  This  was  carried 
to  a  most  absurd  and  dangerous  extreme  in  Montreal.  Every 
man  had  his  phial,  or  his  pill  box,  or  his  powders  of  different 


kinds,  in  his  pockets.  Literally,  he  carried  about  with  him 
an  apothecaries  shop.  Whenever  he  perceived  a  bad  odor,  or 
felt  a  disagreeable  sensation  at  the  stomach,  or  imagined  he 
did  so,  he  suddenly  stopped,  felt  his  pulse,  pulled  out  his  med- 
icine, swallowed  a  dose,  smelt  his  camphor,  felt  his  pulse  again 
and  hastened  on.  The  sight  of  medicine  and  the  act  of  tak- 
ing it,  operating  on  the  common  principle  of  association, 
brought  Cholera  up  before  the  diseased  imagination  with 
increased  vi^ndness.  This  mental  impression,  reacling  again 
upon  the  body,  magnified  the  difficulty,  and  gave  a  new 
demand  for  the  anti-choleric  medicine. 

It  is  believed  that  apothecaries  did  an  immense  deal  of  injury 
by  advertising  and  recommending  their  nostrums  as  preven- 
tives of  cholera  and  as  specific  in  its  cure.  A  hundred  differ- 
ent preparations,  some  of  them  inert,  some  of  them  powerful, 
were  in  this  way  distributed  among  the  community,  with 
directions  recommending  them  to  be  taken  once  in  so  many 
hours,  as  a  preventive  or  as  a  cure  of  the  disease.  Editors, 
too,  scraped  together  and  published  all  the  recipes  which  could 
be  had.  Indi\-iduals  volunteered  their  ad\'ice  and  stated  their 
experience.  Thus  the  public  mind  was  distradted  and  almost 
enraged.  Xo  one  could  tell,  among  the  multiplicity  of  the 
means  of  safety  which  were  about  him,  where  to  put  his  reli- 
ance. Alternately  moved  by  hope  and  bj-  fear,  by  faith  and 
doubt,  by  confidence  and  distrust,  he  at  times  seized  upon  this 
thing  and  at  times  upon  that.  Some,  that  they  might  be  sure  to 
get  hold  of  the  real  specific,  with  more  sang  froid  than  was 
common,  diH gently  gathered  up  all  the  anti-cholera  compounds 
which  they  could  find,  and  used  the  whole  as  directed,  either 
together  or  in  succession. 

I  am  not  opposed  to  the  using  of  medicine  without  profes- 
sional ad\*ice  in  cases  of  sudden  attack  when  a  physician  is  not 
at  hand  ;  on  the  contrary-,  I  am  much  in  favor  of  it,  pro\-ided 
it  be  judicious  and  its  design  be  understood.  But  certainly, 
matters  should  not  be  transacted  as  they  have  been  in  Mon- 
treal. The  dreadful  consequences  which  are  supposed  to  have 
resulted  from  the  mode  in  which  drugs  have  been  distributed 


and  taken,  and  ill-judged  advice  diffused  and  received,  should 
prompt  other  cities  to  the  adoption  of  some  means  to  prevent  a 
repetition  of  the  like  evils. 

[fourth  letter.] 

Albany,  June  joth,  i8j2. 

Genti^emen — It  is  with  great  pleasure  that  I  have  complied 
with  your  request  and  have  drawn  up  the  accompanying  com- 
munication, giving  the  results  of  my  enquiries  and  observ^ations 
while  executing  your  purpose  in  my  late  visit  to  Montreal  and 
the  other  seats  of  the  cholera.  Though  the  facts  which  it  con- 
tains have  been  arranged  and  committed  to  paper  with  consid- 
erable haste,  they  were  collected  with  much  care. 

With  sentiments  of  the  highest  respect  and  esteem,  I  remain 
yours,  &c.  Henry  Bronson. 

It  seems  the  present  cholera  of  the  north  first  made  its 
appearance  on  any  considerable  scale  at  Quebec.  The  fadts  as 
far  as  I  can  coUedt  them  are  these  : 

The  steamboat  Voyageur  started  from  Quebec  to  Montreal, 
heavily  loaded  with  passengers  (emigrants),  all  of  them  appar- 
ently healthy.  They  were  a  motley  group  from  almost  every 
nation  in  Europe.  After  having  proceeded  about  ten  miles, 
the  boat  was  found  to  be  in  danger  of  sinking  from  the  weight 
of  its  burden.  The  water  had  actually  began  to  enter  the 
cabin.  A  general  alarm  seized  all  on  board,  while  shrieks 
and  groans  were  heard  from  every  part  of  the  vessel.  The  cap- 
tain turned  about  and  made  for  Quebec.  He  arrived  between 
12  and  I  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  8th,  landed  about  150 
of  the  emigrants,  and  directed  his ,  course  again  up  the  river 
for  Montreal.  On  the  same  day  a  man  among  those  who  were 
put  ashore  at  Quebec,  sickened  and  died  of  cholera.  The  dis- 
ease immediately  became  general  at  that  place. 

During  the  passage  to  Montreal,  a  man  was  taken  ill  on 
board  with  the  symptoms  of  cholera,  and  was  taken  on  shore 
on  the  arrival  of  the  boat  at  that  place  on  the  evening  of  the 
9th.     The  next  day,  another  emigrant,  who  came  up  in  the 


Voyageur  the  evening  previous,  was  attacked  in  Montreal  with 
the  same  disease,  which  proved  fatal  in  a  few  hours.  This 
was  the  first  case  which  occurred  in  Montreal.  The  succeed- 
ing night  and  the  next  daj-,  the  disorder  appeared  almost  simul- 
taneously in  all  quarters  of  the  city.  These  fadls  I  derived 
from  Capt.  Morin,  who  commanded  the  Voj'ageur.  They 
were  confirmed  b}'  physicians  in  Montreal  who  had  examined 
into  the  subject. 

It  may  be  necessar}^  to  say  that  the  vessel,  James  Carricks, 
which  was  said  to  have  introduced  the  cholera  into  Quebec, 
was  performing  quarantine  below  at  the  time  above  mentioned, 
and  for  some  days  afterwards. 

During  Sunday  the  loth,  many  emigrants  who  came  up  in 
the  Voj^ageur  the  evening  preceding,  crossed  over  to  Laprairie, 
a  distance  of  nine  miles,  on  their  way  to  "the  States."  On 
Mondaj'  one  of  them  was  taken  ill,  and  died  of  cholera.  The 
same  day,  but  subsequently,  an  inhabitant  who  was  much 
about  the  landing  place,  was  seized  in  a  similar  way.  The 
next  cases  occurred  on  Wednesdaj^  at  which  time  the  disease 
became  general.  These  fadts  were  stated  to  me  bj^  Dr.  Alex- 
ander, of  Laprairie. 

On  the  14th  an  emigrant  from  Montreal  was  found  sick  upon 
the  wharf  in  St.  Johns,  and  died  of  cholera.  An  inhabitant 
was  attacked  on  the  15th,  and  another  the  daj^  following. 
The  malad}^  then  spread  over  the  village.  This  statement  was 
made  b}^  Drs.  Wamslej'-  and  Bucklej^  physicians  in  St.  Johns. 

The  first  case  of  sickness  in  Plattsburgh,  which  was  reported 
as  cholera  (though  it  seems  doubtful  from  the  symptoms 
whether  it  was  a  case  of  that  kind),  was  upon  the  12th,  in  an 
emigrant  who,  if  his  own  story  be  correct  (for  he  is  still  living), 
left  Montreal  on  the  7th,  two  days  before  the  epidemic  had 
appeared  in  that  place.  The  second  case  occurred  on  the  14th 
and  the  third  on  the  15th,  both  of  which  were  fatal.  The 
others  were  in  immediate  succession.  My  authorities  are  Drs. 
Mooers  and  Kane  of  Plattsburgh. 

On  Wednesdaj'  the  13th,  a  family  came  from  Montreal  to 
Burlington.     A  child  belonging  to  it  sickened  and  died  sud- 

36 


denly  on  the  15th.  The  mother  went  to  Montpelier  two  days 
after,  was  seized  with  the  cholera,  and  died,  as  reported  by  the 
board  of  health  in  that  place.  On  the  i6th,  a  man  who  lived 
in  the  building,  or  the  group  of  buildings  in  which  the  family 
from  Montreal  had  stopped,  and  in  which  the  child  had  died, 
was  found  ill  in  the  street  of  a  disease  resembling  cholera. 
He  survived  forty-eight  hours.  The  following  day  (17th),  two 
others  were  attacked  with  similar  symptoms,  and  expired  in  a 
few  hours.  The  above  four  cases,  which  occurred  in  Burling- 
ton, it  is  now  universally  believed  were  true  cholera,  though 
for  reasons  which  it  is  at  present  unnecessary  to  state,  they 
were  not  so  reported  at  the  time.  This  information  I  received 
from  Dr.  lyincoln  of  Burlington,  a  gentleman  worthy  of  all 
credence. 

The  facts  in  regard  to  the  cases  in  Whitehall  are  perhaps 
well  known.  A  Mr.  lycarned,  direct  from  Montreal,  arrived 
at  Whitehall  on  board  the  Phenix  on  the  15th,  sick  of  cholera. 
He  expired  in  a  few  hours.  An  inhabitant  was  taken  with 
sjmiptoms  of  the  same  kind  the  next  morning  and  died  during 
the  day.  Though  the  latter  is  believed  to  have  had  no  imme- 
diate communication  with  Learned,  yet  he  is  said  to  have  had 
intercourse,  and  drank  with  those  who  came  in  the  same  boat. 

The  cholera,  so  far  as  I  have  seen  or  heard,  appears  in  par- 
ticular families,  neighborhoods  and  streets.  The  cases  are  to 
be  found  in  groups,  more  than  single  and  isolated.  And  all 
this  seems  to  happen,  independently  of  local  circumstances,  or 
domestic  and  personal  causes.  This,  for  evident  reasons, 
appears  to  be  more  obviously  the  fact  in  the  country  where  the 
population  is  scattered,  than  in  the  citj^  where  it  is  dense.  I 
noticed  it  particularly  in  I^aprairie.  In  Plattsburgh,  the  whole 
number  of  undoubted  cases,  amounting  to  six,  occurred  in 
a  little  cluster  of  dirty  huts.  The  same  was  the  fadl  in  Bur- 
lington. In  Montreal,  Dr.  Robinson,  a  highly  respecftable 
physician,  informed  me  that  the  houses  in  which  cholera  raged, 
were  in  groups,  and  that  the  families  into  which  the  disease 
had  once  entered,  were  almost  sure  to  suffer  in  more  than  one 
instance. 


The  cholera  in  America,  as  iu  the  east,  in  passing  on  has 
taken  the  great  roads  of  communication.  Arriving  at  Mon- 
treal from  Quebec,  it  selected  the  two  principal,  and  indeed 
only,  thoroughfares  across  the  country.  It  had  marched  up 
the  St.  Lawrence  through  Prescott,  Brockville,  Kingston,  tak- 
ing the  great  chain  of  lakes,  and  south  through  Laprairie, 
St.  Johns,  Plattsburgh,  &c.,  the  only  direct  route  to  the 
United  States.  It  has  not  appeared,  so  far  as  I  can  learn,  in 
any  inland  or  isolated  place,  except  in  the  persons  of  those 
dire<5tly  from  the  infecn:ed  region. 

The  fadls  above  noticed  are  precisel}'^  like  those  which  may 
be  gathered  from  every  field  which  cholera  has  occupied.  I 
state  them  because  the}'  are  new  individuall}-,  not  novel  in 
kind.  They  certainly  give  evidence  that  cholera  is  contagious 
or  infe(5lious  (for  these  terms  are  in  a  practical  sense  synony- 
mous). I  am  full)-  aware  of  the  mode  in  which  they  will  be 
evaded,  not  met,  by  the  sceptical,  but  I  have  no  time  now  to 
spend  in  quibbling.  But  there  is  another  class  of  fadls,  which 
have  an  important  bearing  upon  this  subjedl,  which  it  may  be 
worth  while  to  consider. 

On  the  first  appearance  of  cholera  in  Asia  there  was  of  course 
no  contagion.  A  combination  of  causes  was  then  in  existence 
which  originated  the  disease.  It  ceases  spontaneously  in  the 
southern  latitudes  every  fall,  and  starts  up  again  in  the  spring. 
Why  maj"  not  the  same  circumstances  which  primarily  pro- 
duced it,  and  have  secondarily'-  reproduced  it,  bring  it  into  exist- 
ence again  in  Europe  or  America  ?     Thej^  have  done  so. 

I  have  the  authority  of  Drs.  Robinson  and  Nelson  of  Mon- 
treal, men  of  high  professional  standing,  for  saying  that  the 
cholera  appeared  there  earl}^  in  the  spring  of  the  present  year, 
before  the  breaking  up  of  the  ice  in  the  river,  and  of  course 
before  the  arrival  of  emigrants.  One  of  them  believed  it  at 
the  time  true  Asiatic  cholera,  and  expected  to  see  it  spread, 
but  it  disappeared  in  about  eight  days.  They  are  both  of  them 
now  strong  in  the  belief  of  its  identity  with  their  late  epi- 
demic. Dr.  Robinson  saw  three  cases.  Dr.  Nelson  many  more. 
A  number  died.     The  disease  was  confined  to  a  small  neigh- 

38 


borhood  in  one  of  the  suburbs.  Dr.  Wamsley  of  St.  Johns 
informed  me  thas  he  was  called  to  see  a  man  as  early  as  last 
April,  ill  of  what  he  then  supposed  and  now  believes  to  have 
been  genuine  Asiatic  cholera. 

Besides,  is  it  possible  to  suppose  that  the  emigrants  who 
spread  the  disease  in  Canada  brought  it  with  them  from 
Europe  ?  The  latent  period  of  this  disease  is  known  to  be 
very  short.  It  is  commonly  only  a  few  hours,  rarely  a  few 
days.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  conceive  a  man  to  take  cholera 
in  Cork  or  Belfast,  cross  the  Atlantic  in  perfedl  health,  reach 
Quebec  or  Montreal,  and  there  sicken  for  the  first  time.  It  is 
more  probable  that  the  disease  was  produced  by  what  Syden- 
ham calls  the  epidemic  constitution  (or  that  unknown  combina- 
tion of  circumstances  which  originates  contagious  diseases  on 
their  first  appearance,  and  frequently  reproduces  them  after- 
wards), which  we  know  was  intense  by  the  few  cases  of  cholera 
which  sprung  up  in  the  spring  in  Montreal  and  St.  Johns. 
The  strong  terror  which  prevailed  among  the  passengers  of 
the  Voyageur  during  their  perilous  situation,  doubtless  coop- 
erated powerfully  in  producing  the  efledt. 

The  two  great  classes  of  fadts  above  alluded  to  are  not  at  all 
inconsistent.  The  dodlrines  of  contagion  and  non-contagion 
are  easily  reconciled.  The  truth  is,  almost  any  febrile  disease 
which  becomes  epidemic  may  be  contagious  under  particular 
circumstances.  Typhus  is  so — dysentery  is  so — yellow  fever 
and  plague  are  so.  Kvery  contagious  fever  may  also,  when 
the  epidemic  constitution  is  in  a  state  of  great  intensity,  or 
the  predisposition  is  very  strong,  start  up  without  any  com- 
munication with  the  infe<ft;ed.  This  might  be  proved  abun- 
dantly (were  there  room  for  it)  of  scarlet  fever,  measles, 
whooping  cough,  and  even  small  pox. 

There  may  be  expedled  from  me  a  brief  outline  of  the 
symptoms  of  the  disease  which  I  have  examined. 

A  great  susceptibility  to  cholera  is  common  to  all  who  live 
within  the  range  of  its  prevalence.  It  is  manifested,  as  said 
in  a  previous  communication,  by  a  diminution  of  appetite, 
furred  tongue,  indigestion,  oppression  about  the  stomach  and 


heart,  a  dingA'  complexion,  etc.  If  the  predisposition  is 
stronger,  in  addition  to  these  symptoms  are  griping  pains  in 
the  abdomen,  looseness  of  the  bowels,  slight  cramps  in  the 
calves  of  the  legs,  pointed  features,  etc.  There  is  some 
variety  in  the  manner  of  the  decided  attack.  The  more 
regular  cases  come  on  with  vertigo,  followed  b}-  a  temporarj^ 
loss  of  consciousness,  some  pain  in  the  stomach  and  bowels, 
distress  about  the  chest,  a  sort  of  struggling  in  the  region  of 
the  heart,  agitation  and  perhaps  a  little  fullness  of  the  pulse, 
etc.  '  This  is  called  by  the  IMontreal  physicians  the  stage  of 
excitement ;  though  it  might  perhaps  with  more  propriety  be 
called  the  stage  of  commotion.  It  lasts  commonly  ten,  twentj- 
or  thirty-  minutes,  or  longer.  Gradually,  spasms  in  the  legs 
and  about  the  stomach  come  on,  copious  dejeclions,  at  first  of 
the  undigested  contents  of  the  stomach  and  bowels,  afterwards 
of  a  fluid  resembling  dish-water  or  rice-water,  vomiting  of  a 
similar  fluid,  insatiable  thirst,  sinking  of  the  pulse,  coldness 
of  the  hands  and  feet,  gradually  extending  to  the  trunk,  blue- 
ness  of  the  surface.  The  tongue  and  breath  are  cold.  A 
profuse,  cold,  clammy  sweat  breaks  out,  particularly  on  the 
extremities.  The  arteries  cease  to  beat  and  the  heart  only 
vibrates.  The  hands  and  feet  are  much  shrivelled,  appearing 
as  if  they  had  for  a  long  time  been  soaked  in  water,  or  envel- 
oped in  a  poultice.  The  cheeks  appear  fallen  in,  the  eyes 
sunken,  and  the  countenance  inexpressibh*  ghastly.  Death 
follows  soon.  The  urine  is  commonly  completely  suppressed. 
The  mind  seems  generally  little  afiecled  until  it  is  deprived  of 
its  means  of  expression  bj'  exhaustion.  The  duration  of  the 
disease  is  ordinarih-  from  four  to  eighteen  hours. 

Sometimes  the  first  stage  seems  to  be  passed  over,  and  the 
second,  or  blue,  or  cold  stage  commences  the  attack.  This  is 
the  disease  in  one  of  its  worst  forms.  There  is  sometimes  no 
purging  or  vomiting  or  spasms.  These  are  desperate  cases,  as 
they  show  a  great  want  of  vital  energy-.  The  insidious  cases 
are  nearly  equally  bad.  which  creep  on  insensibly,  by  a  pro- 
tradled,  exhausting,  and  unmanageable  diarrhoea. 


The  Montreal  physicians  confidently  afiirm,  that  they  can  cure 
five  in  six  of  the  cases  of  cholera,  provided  they  are  called  at 
the  outset  of  the  disease,  and  the  constitution  is  not  in  a  state 
of  complete  dilapidation.  At  this  time  the  sweating  regimen 
is  often  successful.  A  Dover's  powder  may  be  given,  the  body 
covered  up  warm  in  bed,  bottles  of  hot  water  applied  to  the 
feet,  etc.  This  is  the  stage  in  which  they  bleed,  if  ever.  The 
physicians  in  St.  Johns  think  they  have  used  the  lancet  very 
successfully  at  this  period 

When  the  vomiting,  and  purging,  and  coldness,  and  flagging 
of  the  pulse  come  on,  the  remedies  must  be  promptly  changed. 
Bleeding,  vomiting,  purging,  sweating,  and  any  reducing 
agent,  all  agree,  are  out  of  place.  Opium,  in  some  combina- 
tion or  form,  is  here  the  sheet  anchor.  All  use  it,  and  all  rely 
on  it,  more  than  on  any  thing  and  every  thing  else.  How- 
ever, it  requires  to  be  managed  with  great  judgment.  The 
pill,  swallowed  dry,  is  commonly  preferred.  L/audanum 
enemas  are  used  with  advantage.  Every  thing  depends  upon 
promptly  arresting  the  vomiting  and  purging,  and  allaying 
the  irritability  of  the  stomach  and  bowels,  and  consequently 
bringing  about  a  gentle  readlion — indicated  by  returning 
warmth  and  pulse,  etc.  For  the  latter  purpose  are  employed 
ammonia,  ether,  the  essential  oils,  hot  water  blisters,  dry  heat 
to  the  extremities,  etc.  A  position  upon  the  back,  perfedl 
quiet,  and  abstinence  from  all  drinks,  are  stricftly  enjoined. 
If  the  patient  is  once  raised  from  the  sinking  stage,  the  pros- 
pedl  of  recovery  is  fair,  and  convalescence  rapid. 

This  is,  IN  ge;nerai,,  the  practice  I  have  witnessed,  modified 
of  course  to  suit  individual  cases. 

Some  use  calomel  in  their  practice ;  but  it  is  generally  con- 
sidered too  slow  in  its  operation  to  prove  serviceable.  Some 
employ  assafsetida,  and  some  other  things  ;  but  they  are  all 
commonly  auxiliary  to  the  remedies  which  have  been  pointed 
out. 

Most  of  the  physicians  at  the  north,  whom  I  have  seen, 
consider  their  cholera  as  identical  with  the  scourge  of  the 
Bast ;  however,  many  of  them  look  upon   it  as  the  common 


endemic  of  the  country — cholera  morbus  in  an  aggravated 
form.  I  know  of  no  solid  ground  for  this  opinion.  These 
diseases  appear  to  me  as  specifically  distinct  as  different  dis- 
eases ever  are.  The  one  is  epidemic,  the  other  is  never  so  ; 
the  one  occurs  at  all  seasons,  the  other  never  except  in  the 
summer  and  autumn,  unless  in  a  single  isolated  case,  depend- 
ing upon  some  irritating  substance  taken  into  the  stomach  ; 
the  danger  in  the  one  is  not  necessarily  proportionate  to  the 
\nolence  of  the  vomiting  and  purging,  for  some  of  the  worst 
cases,  as  we  have  seen,  are  attended  with  neither  ;  while  that 
in  the  other  is  in  diredl  proportion  to  the  intensity  of  these 
sj-mptoms.  The  peculiar  rice-water  discharges  are  almost 
alwaj'S  present  in  the  one,  and  ver^-  rarely  in  the  other. 
There  are  many  other  points  of  difference  which  cannot  now 
be  enumerated.  It  is,  however,  a  question  which  involves  no 
pracftical  consideration. 

I  had  almost  forgotten  to  remark,  what  has  been  observed  in 
the  East,  that  the  greatest  proportion  of  attacks  from  cholera, 
so  far  as  I  have  learnt,  has  been  in  the  morning,  between  the 
hours  of  twelve  and  four  o'clock. 

N.  B.  It  will  be  noticed  that  nothing  has  been  repeated  in 
the  foregoing  statement  which  is  contained  in  my  letters  as 
published  in  the  Albany  papers. 


REMARKS  ON  THE  CHLORIDES  AND  CHLORINE. 

The  Chlorides  and  Chlorine  as    "  Disi?ifecting   Age7its,'^  and  as 
Preveyitives  of  Cholera.     By  Henry  Bronson,  M.D. 

[Communicated   for  the   Boston   Medical   and   Surgical  Journal.] 

Some  weeks  ago,  in  a  series  of  letters  from  Canada,  I  ventured 
to  make  some  remarks  respecting  the  anti-cholera  powers  of 
medicines  as  preventives.  Strong  doubts  were  expressed  of 
their  utility,  or  even  safety,  whether  taken  into  the  stomach  or 
breathed  in  the  form  of  fumes  or  gases.  Even  chlorine  was 
thought  exceptionable.  My  object  was  to  shake  the  public 
confidence  in  all  nostrums  and  specifics  for  the  preservation  of 


health,  and  in  all  substitutes  ior  real  cleanliness.  For  all  this  I 
was  censured.  My  sentiments  were  judged  heterodox.  My 
object  now  is  to  show  the  grounds  of  my  opinions  as  then 
expressed,  and  particularly  to  state  the  arguments  and  the 
facts  which  bear  upon  the  question  as  to  the  efi&cacy  of  the 
chlorides  as  "  disinfecting  agents." 

It  seems  to  be  taken  for  granted  b}^  most  non-professional  and 
b}^  man}^  professional  men  who  have  thought  little  upon  the  sub- 
ject, that  a  disease  which  is  ascertained  to  originate  and  spread 
independentlj^  of  a  contagious  influence,  is  of  course  atmospher- 
ical. This  is  entirely  a  gratuitous  supposition,  unsupported  by 
a  single  fact,  and  contradicted  by  many  obvious  truths.  If  it  is 
said  that  there  is  any  change  in  the  component  parts  of  the  at- 
mosphere, the  assertion  is  destitute  of  proof.  The  most  accurate 
philosophical  analyses  and  experiments  can  detect  no  altera- 
tion. Its  proportions  are  the  same  where  cholera  is  raging  in 
its  direct  form,  and  where  no  such  disease  is  present.  If  it  is 
afl&rmed  that  a  foreign  substance  in  the  form  of  a  gas  or  vapor, 
or  in  some  other  state,  is  introduced  into  the  air,  combining  or 
mixing  with  it,  and  b}^  its  deleterious  action  upon  the  system 
giving  a  predisposition  to  the  disease  in  question,  the  asser- 
tion again  is  void  of  proof.  No  one  has  ever  discovered  such 
substance,  and  facts  would  seem  to  render  its  existence  impos- 
sible. Ponderable  matter  in  any  shape,  even  though  it  be  a 
gas  or  vapor  in  the  most  tenuous  form,  when  diffused  in  the 
atmosphere,  is  subject  to  the  laws  of  matter.  It  moves  with 
the  element  which  contains  it  ;  it  is  driven  by  currents.  But 
can  the  course  of  the  cholera  be  calculated  by  the  course  of  the 
winds,  like  the  smoke  of  our  chimneys  or  the  clouds  over  our 
heads  ?  Is  it  facilitated  or  retarded  in  its  march  by  the  motion 
of  the  atmosphere  ?  It  travels  with  the  same  equal  and  resist- 
less step  in  the  face  of  the  monsoons  of  India  as  when  aided 
by  the  strength  of  a  tempest.  It  does  not  receive  wings  from 
the  hurricane,  nor  is  its  flight  arrested  by  a  calm. 

If  I  am  asked  the  essential,  non-contagious  cause  of  cholera, 
I  answer  frankly — /  do  not  knozc.  Every  agent  in  nature, 
real  or  imaginary,  has  been  accused.     Electricity,  magnetism, 


earth,  air,  water,  sun,  moon,  planets,  comets,  have  each  been 
arraigned  in  vain.  There  is  a  mystery  which  hangs  over  the 
origin  and  spread  of  epidemics,  which  will  probabh'  never  be 
removed.  The  philosophers  of  the  present  daj'  are  no  wiser 
on  this  subject  than  those  who  lived  three  thousand  years  ago. 

There  is,  then,  not  a  particle  of  evidence  that  the  general 
atmosphere  where  cholera  prevails  is  changed,  or  contains 
any  impurit}-.  On  the  contran,-,  all  the  evidence  which  exists 
upon  the  subject  is  against  such  a  supposition.  What  folly, 
then — what  short  of  empiricism — to  charge  the  elements  we 
breathe  with  the  smoke  of  gunpowder,  the  fumes  of  tar,  brim- 
stone, camphor,  with  chlorine  and  every  species  of  stench,  for 
the  purpose  of  purifying  it  and  rendering  it  wholesome  !  Does 
common  sense  teach  us  to  introduce  into  the  air  b}^  which  we 
are  enveloped,  which  contributes  to  sustain  us,  and  which 
there  is  every  reason  to  believe  pure,  a  known  noxious  sub- 
stance (chlorine),  for  the  purpose  of  neutralizing  or  destroying 
an  unknown  something  of  unknown  powers,  and  of  improb- 
able existence  ?     It  scouts  the  idea. 

Among  the  various  substances  which  from  time  to  time  have 
been  brought  forward  and  lauded  as  "disinfecting  agents," 
chlorine  is  perhaps  the  only  one  which  at  the  present  day 
describes  attention.  The  parade  of  pretended  science  with 
which  its  claims  have  been  urged  and  defended,  and  the 
specious  but  superficial  reasoning  with  which  they  have  been 
supported,  render  its  nature  and  its  asserted  powers  worthy 
of  examination. 

Chlorine  (the  active  principle  evolved  from  the  chlorides)  is 
one  of  those  acrid  and  poisonous  gases  which  when  respired  in 
an}-  considerable  quantities  occasion  serious  derangement  in  the 
animal  econom}-,  or  even  destroy  life.  It  produces  great  irri- 
tation of  the  bronchial  passages — manifested  b}-  heat,  pain, 
stricture,  etc. — which  is  followed  by  inflammation  and  destruc- 
tion of  the  function  of  the  lungs.  If  an  animal  is  immersed  in 
it  he  dies  suddenly  of  asphyxia.  When  largely  diluted  with 
common  air,  it  occasions  cough,  dizziness,  tightness  across  the 
chest,  and  an  urgent  desire   for  fresh   air.      These  effects,  if 


they  do  not  result  in  speedy  inflammation,  or  throw  the  system 
into  some  disease  to  which  it  may  be  at  the  time  strongly  pre- 
disposed, gradually  cease  as  the  constitution  becomes  accus- 
tomed to  the  agent.  Like  other  poisons,  by  incessant  and 
protracted  use,  it  finally  becomes  comparatively  inert.  The 
system  calls  into  requisition  its  powers  of  resistance,  gradually 
adapts  itself  to  the  noxious  substance,  and  finally  tolerates  it 
with  little  injury.  In  very  minute  doses,  it  may  be  breathed 
without  any  appreciable  efiecSls.  All  the  virulent  poisons, 
such  as  arsenic,  prussic  acid,  nux- vomica,  bohun  upas,  opium, 
etc.,  may  be  used  in  small  quantities  with  safety  ;  yet  who 
would  think  of  employing  them  except  for  urgent  sickness  ? 
"Who  would  be  mad  enough  to  swallow  them  on  the  suppo- 
sition of  his  possible  illness,  when  he  has  every  symptom  of 
health  ?  And  who  would  be  willing  to  inhale  the  noxious 
fumes  of  the  chlorides  because  some  visionary  has  idly  con- 
jectured that  the  air  may  be  impure,  when  it  has  every  appear- 
ance of  purity,  and  when  at  the  same  time  the  fadl  is  assumed 
— not  proved — that  chlorine  has  an  universal  power  over  atmo- 
spherical contaminations  ? 

Of  the  efiect  of  chlorine  in  destroying  some  of  the  fetid 
gases,  I  am  well  aware.  It  does  this  (generally  at  least)  by  its 
powerful  aflanity  for  one  of  the  elements  (hydrogen)  in  the 
composition  of  those  gases,  detaching  it,  entering  into  com- 
bination with  it,  and  destroying  the  compound.  This  is  a 
common  efiect  of  chlorine.  But  there  are  offensive  gases  upon 
which  it  has  no  effect ;  at  least,  when  used  in  such  small  quan- 
tities as  not  to  render  the  air  which  contains  it  irrespirable. 
The  truth  of  this  remark  I  have  often  proved  in  dissecting 
rooms.  In  such  places  the  "purifier"  has  often  failed  to 
remove  stench,  even  when  the  apartment  was  strongly  impreg- 
nated with  it,  as  evidenced  by  the  senses  and  the  appropriate 
tests.  A  similar  failure  has  often  happened  when  a  strong 
solution  has  been  applied  to  decomposing  animal  matter. 
Sores  and  ulcers  giving  forth  an  offensive  effluvium  have  not 
been  uniformly  deprived  of  their  fetor  by  its  application. 
Similar  results  have   been   witnessed  b}^   others.       Chlorine, 


then,  is  no  more  of  a  specific  for  stench  than  Swain's  panacea  is 
for  indigestion.  This  is  readily  accounted  for.  Fetid  gases 
are  not  necessarilj-  compounds  of  hydrogen  ;  and  those  that 
are  so  may  retain  this  element  by  a  strength  of  affinitj'  which 
is  too  powerful  for  chlorine  to  overcome.  Such  gases  or  sub- 
stances are  often,  probably,  of  a  specific  nature — peculiar 
proximate  principles  formed  by  peculiar  chemical  agencies. 
When  such  is  the  fadl,  "the  universal  purifier"  is  little 
better  than  burning  tar  or  feathers.  While  chlorine,  then,  is 
an  agent  of  considerable  power  in  destroying  bad  smells, 
entering  chemically  into  combination  with  one  or  more  of 
the  elements  which    compose  them,   it  is  not  a  specific. 

It  is  believed  that  the  knowledge  of  the  power  of  chlorine 
over  offensive  odors  first  suggested  its  use  as  a  "  disinfectant." 
At  the  time  of  this  suggestion,  the  shades  of  alchem)"  were 
not  entirely  dispelled.  Men  occasionally  dreamed  about  "the 
philosopher's  stone,"  and  "the  elixir  of  life."  Chemistry 
was  thought  to  have  an  importance  among  the  sciences 
which  it  does  not  possess.  Not  only  inorganic  matter,  but 
organic  beings,  were  supposed  under  the  dominion  of  its  laws. 
The  animal  fluids  were  considered  definite  chemical  compounds, 
which  it  was  not  beyond  the  powers  of  the  laborator>^  to  simu- 
late. The  matter  of  contagion  was  considered  a  gas  not  unlike 
what  ' '  chemists  are  accustomed  to  catch  in  their  receivers, ' ' 
and  the  cause  of  epidemic  and  malarious  diseases  a  similar 
gas  floating  in  the  atmosphere.  The  foul  air  which  commonly 
surrounds  the  beds  of  the  sick  was  identified  with  these  aerial 
poisons,  and  it  became  an  object  to  correct  it.  The  "puri- 
fier" (chlorine)  was  applied.  If  odor  could  be  removed,  or 
drowTied  and  rendered  imperceptible  by  a  more  powerful 
stench,  all  was  considered  safe.  This  is  the  waj-  in  which  the 
' '  preventive  ' '  came  into  use.  The  chemist,  instead  of  trying 
his  infallible  and  collecting  facts  in  proof  of  its  eflBcacy,  sat 
quietly  speculating  in  his  closet.  If  his  dogmas  were  doubted, 
he  refuted  the  sceptics  b}-  an  appeal  to  experiments  made  in 
his  laboratory.  This  is  the  kind  of  science  which  has  made  so 
much  noise  in  this  matter. 

46 


There  is  a  great  error  prevalent — particularly  among  those 
of  little  medical  reading — respecting  the  agency  in  disease  of 
those  gases  perceptible  by  the  senses  which  are  evolved  from 
decomposing  organic  matter.  Though  I  cannot  persuade 
myself  that  they  are  entirely  harmless,  yet  abundant  observa- 
tion has  conclusively  proved  that  they  act  a  very  subordinate 
part  in  the  production  of  disease.  There  is  the  best  reason  to 
believe  that  the  deleterious  principle  which  is  evolved  from  . 
filth — from  vegetable  and  animal  matters  in  a  state  of  decompo- 
sition— does  not  reside  in  those  effluvia  which  are  most  obnox- 
ious to  the  sense  of  smell ;  but  in  something  else  which  is 
tasteless,  inodorous,  and  often  too  subtle  for  the  tests  of  chemis- 
try to  detect.  There  are  numerous  facts  which  show  the 
inadequacy  of  the  fetid  gases  alone  to  produce  serious  derange- 
ments of  the  health,  much  more  endemic  or  epidemic  diseases. 
The  stench  of  slaughter-houses,  barn-yards,  privies,  dissecting 
rooms,  masses  of  putrifying  animal  matter,  etc.,  particularly 
where  there  is  free  ventilation,  although  so  concentrated  as  to 
produce  occasional  nausea  and  vomiting  in  those  unaccustomed 
to  it,  and  so  abundant  and  diffusible  as  to  impregnate  the  air 
for  a  furlong  around,  has  been  satisfactorily  shown  to  have 
often  no  effect  upon  the  health  of  those  who  are  constantly 
exposed  to  it.  Upon  the  seashore  of  New  England,  the 
farmers  make  much  use  of  fish  as  a  manure,  leaving  them  to 
putrify  and  dissolve  upon  the  soil.  A  powerful  and  most 
ofiensive  odor  is  evolved,  which  is  conveyed  on  the  winds  to 
the  distance  of  miles,  sickening  the  stomachs  of  passers-by  ; 
and  yet  no  ill  effects  are  experienced  by  those  who  turn  up 
and  till  the  ground.  The  facts  of  this  description  are  so  com- 
mon that  many  physicians  have  contended  that  anhnal  putre- 
faction is  never  productive  of  sickness.  If  fetid  exhalations 
were  of  themselves  sufficient  to  occasion  permanent  disease, 
or  were  indicative  of  an  atmosphere  necessarily  unwholesome, 
surely  no  such  facts  ought  to  exist. 

Again,  intermittents,  bilious  fever  and  yellow  fever,  which 
are  generally  admitted  to  be  produced  by  the  effluvia  of  animal 
and   vegetable   relics   (particularly   the   latter)    in    a   state   of 


decomposition,  frequenth'  prevail  to  a  most  alarming  extent, 
and  with  singular  fatalitj-.  when  the  senses  recognize  no  con- 
tamination of  the  air,  and  when  of  course  no  fetid  gases 
exist.  We  come  to  the  conclusion,  then,  which  has  often  been 
arrived  at,  that  fetor  merely  has  little  to  do  ^\-ith  sickness  or 
health — that  decomposing  organic  matter  often  evolves  a  most 
deadly  poison  which  has  neither  smell  nor  taste — that  the 
removal  of  nauseous  odors  in  using  the  means  of  cleanliness 
is  a  matter  of  secondary-  importance — and  that  the  emplo>-ment 
of  chlorine,  as  one  of  these  means,  which  has  no  ascertained 
power  over  anything  but  stench,  and  only  a  limited  power 
over  this,  is  of  little  real  ser\4ce. 

But  suppose  the  fetid  gases  are  deleterious  to  health  ;  and 
suppose  that  chlorine,  under  favorable  circumstances,  will 
destro}'  them  :  is  it  eas}-  to  regulate  the  quantity  of  the  latter 
necessar}-  to  decompose  the  former,  and  have  none  in  excess  ? 
Is  it  not  alwaj'S  required  that  the  chlorine  should  be  greatly 
in  excess  in  order  to  eflfect  this  decomposition  with  any  cer- 
tainty* ?  And  is  not  this  />-(?<?  chlorine  productive  of  altogether 
greater  and  more  certain  injur\-  than  could  possibly  have 
resulted  from  the  eflBu\4a  it  was  designed  to  destroy  ?  But  on 
the  supposition  that  the  ' '  disinfecting  agent ' '  can  be  employed 
in  the  precise  quantity  required  to  decompose  an  offensive  gas, 
and  does  actually  decompose  it,  what  is  the  result  ?  A  sub- 
stance is  formed,  consisting  of  chlorine  and  the  h5-drogen 
which  it  has  detached  from  the  offensive  compound.  This  is 
muriatic  acid  gas.  It  is  acrid,  irritating  and  irrespirable  ;  as 
poisonous  as  chlorine,  and  far  more  destructive  to  life  than  the 
fetid  gases  for  which  it  is  a  substitute.  A  bad  smell  is  indeed 
exchanged  for  one  more  tolerable  ;  but  at  the  same  time,  an 
agent  decidedly  noxious  is  added  to  the  atmosphere  in  the 
place  of  one  which  was  hardly  injurious. 

In  the  preceding  remarks  on  the  employment  of  chlorine,  I 
have  considered  it  as  mingled  with  the  air  we  breathe — the  waj' 
in  which  it  is  ordinarilj'  recommended  and  used.  But  there  is 
another  mode  of  employing  it.  The  apartment  to  be  purified 
maj-  be  vacated,  a  vessel  containing  the  materials  for  evolving 


the  gas  placed  within  it,  and  the  doors  and  windows  closed. 
The  room  is  thus  soon  filled  with  the  chlorine.  After  a  few 
hours,  it  may  be  opened  and  thoroughly  ventilated.  If  every- 
thing which  is  capable  of  contaminating  the  air  has  been  pre- 
viously removed,  the  apartment  will  now  perhaps  be  found 
sweet  and  wholesome.  But  chlorine  gas  is  not  the  only  one 
which  will  do  the  same.  Any  of  those  which  have  energetic 
decomposing  powers  will  accomplish  as  much.  The  nitrous 
acid  gas  has  often  been  efifedlually  used  for  this  purpose. 
Indeed,  the  free  use  of  soap  and  water  alone,  aided  by  a  plenty 
of  pure  air,  never  fails  to  answer  a  similar  end.  While  the 
efifedls  of  the  latter  are  equally  or  more  certain,  they  cannot 
always  be  used  without  endangering  the  health. 

Of  the  power  of  chlorine  over  the  principle  of  contagion  or 
infection,  so  roundly  asserted  bj^  some  modern  alchemists, 
there  is  not  a  particle  of  evidence.  True,  indeed,  if  you  could 
catch  this  principle  in  the  bowl  of  a  spoon,  and  pour  upon  it  a 
concentrated  solution  of  chlorine,  there  is  little  doubt  you 
would  destroy  its  activity.  You  might  do  the  same  with 
nitric,  or  muriatic,  or  sulphuric  acid,  or  any  other  powerful 
chemical  agent.  The  virus  of  smallpox  or  cowpox  may  be 
readily  destro5^ed  in  this  way.  The  mode  in  which  this  is 
done  may  be  easilj^  conceived,  by  observing  the  adlion  of  oil  of 
vitriol  or  lunar-caustic  upon  the  surface  of  a  fresh  wound  on 
the  body.  A  complicated  chemical  change  is  efifedled,  the 
nature  of  which  is  not  exacftly  understood.  But  I  am  not  con- 
sidering the  influence  of  chemical  agents  on  the  contagious 
virus  enclosed  in  vessels,  but  when  diflfused  in  the  atmosphere. 
When  in  this  state,  if  the  ' '  disinfedlant ' '  in  quantities  not  irre- 
spirable  can  destroy  it,  those  who  assert  that  it  can,  ought  to 
prove  it.     This  has  not  been  and  cannot  be  done. 

On  a  question  of  the  kind  under  consideration  (the  ' '  disin- 
fe(5ling ' '  power  of  chlorine),  the  burthen  of  proof  devolves 
upon  the  advocates  of  the  chlorides.  Until  they  have  collected 
an  adequate  number  oi  faHs  (not  inferences)  in  support  of  their 
case,  their  statements  are  deserving  of  little  credit.  But  where 
are  these  fadts?     The  subjedl  has  been  long  before  the  public. 


The  claims  of  chlorine  have  been  asserted  and  reasserted.  It 
has  been  employed  for  a  length  of  time  and  on  an  extensive 
scale  in  epidemic,  endemic,  and  contagious  diseases  ;  and  what 
is  the  result  ?  It  has  been  used  in  cholera  wherever  this  dis- 
ease has  appeared — in  Russia,  Germany,  France,  England, 
Canada,  and  the  United  States  ;  and  what  that  is  new  have  its 
advocates  to  say  in  its  favor  ?  Were  its  powers  such  as  they 
have  been  maintained  to  be,  would  not  this  matter  long  ago 
have  been  put  to  rest,  and  the  voice  of  cavilers  and  sceptics 
silenced  ?  No  new  evidence  seems  to  have  been  gathered  upon 
the  subje(5l.  Nine-tenths  of  the  medical  world  still  go  on 
doubting,  while  chemists  still  continue  their  scientific  reveries, 
publishing  to  the  world  their  closet  speculations,  and  anon 
repeating  the  stale  story  about  "the  cathedral  of  Dijon." 
When  the  cholera  commenced  its  ravages  in  Albany,  high 
hopes  were  entertained  of  arresting  its  progress  by  the  chlo- 
rides. All  took  good  care  to  lay  in  a  supply  of  "the  pre- 
ventive." Everything  inside  and  out  was  deluged  with  the 
* '  disinfedling  "  gas.  One's  chance  of  safety  seemed  to  be  con- 
sidered directly  as  the  quantity  of  chlorides  he  had  with  and 
about  him.  What  followed  ?  The  disease  increased,  as  it  had 
been  wont  to  do  in  other  places.  Men  sickened  and  died. 
Some  fell  victims  with  "the  immortal  catholicon  "  in  their 
pockets  !  People  lost  confidence  in  their  protector.  It  went 
out  of  fashion  and  was  abandoned,  and  presentlj^  the  pestilence 
took  wings.  While  the  epidemic  was  among  us,  I  watched 
closely  and  incessantly^  the  efiedl  of  the  means  which  were  used 
as  preventives.  Burning  tar,  the  fumes  of  sulphur,  and  the 
exhalations  from  the  chlorides,  were  all  fairly  beaten.  The 
latter  seemed  nothing  better  than  the  others  ;  that  is,  it  was  of 
no  ser\dce  at  all.  I  have  diligently  searched,  and  have  not 
been  able  to  coUedl  a  single  unequivocal  fadl  to  show  that  its 
use  has  with  us  been  attended  with  the  least  benefit.  Nor  have 
I  met  with  one  who  has  been  more  fortunate  than  m5'Self.  Many 
who  were  its  advocates  in  the  beginning,  were  faithless  towards 
the  close.  Most  of  the  physicians  here  are  now  either  indiffer- 
ent or  entirely  sceptical  as  regards  the  ' '  disinfector. ' ' 


But  has  chlorine  had  no  positive  injurious  efFecfts  in  the  pro- 
fusion in  which  it  has  been  used  as  a  cholera  preventive  ?  Is  it 
easy  to  conceive  that  the  inhalation  of  so  noxious  and  powerful 
an  agent  can  be  a  matter  of  indifference,  especially  when  the 
system  is  in  a  state  of  lively  susceptibility  to  the  acftion  of 
causes  disturbing  the  health  ?  Where  cholera  prevails,  there 
is  an  universal  predisposition  to  disease — a  predisposition  which 
is  kindled  into  a  fatal  blaze  by  the  application  of  a  spark.  An 
injurious  impression  made  upon  the  body,  whether  through 
the  medium  of  the  stomach  or  lungs,  which  in  other  circum- 
stances would  be  produdlive  of  little  harm,  will  in  this  state  be 
followed  by  sickness  and  death.  Is  it  safe,  then,  to  recommend 
the  general  breathing  of  chlorine  where  this  epidemic  is  rag- 
ing ?  Is  it  not  eminently  hazardous  ?  Would  not  this  meas- 
ure, if  adopted,  instead  of  preventing  the  disease,  add  to  the 
exciting  causes  of  an  attack  ? 

But  what  are  the  fa^s  upon  this  subjedl  ?  Enough  have 
occurred  in  this  city  to  satisfy  any  candid  mind  that  the  gas 
exhaled  from  the  chlorides  is  not  innoxious — that  it  cannot  be 
respired  with  impunity  where  epidemic  cholera  is  prevailing — 
that  its  tendency  is  to  augment  and  not  to  diminish  the  number 
of  the  sick.  It  has  taken  rank  here  among  the  numerous  excit- 
ing causes  of  disease,  and  has  not  been  least  in  importance.  I 
have  experienced  inconvenience  from  it  myself,  in  common  with 
many  others.  The  effe<5ts  on  susceptible  persons  have  often 
been  powerful.  On  such,  a  state  approaching  asphyxia  has 
sometimes  been  produced  while  walking  the  streets.  An 
attack  of  the  epidemic  has  in  more  than  one  instance  been 
satisfactorily  traced  to  the  free  respiration  of  chlorine.  One 
physician  has  mentioned  to  me  a  remarkable  instance.  All  the 
members  of  a  large  and  respedlable  family  were  seized  with  the 
symptoms  of  the  malady  within  eighteen  hours  after  a  liberal 
use  of  the  "  preventive  "  in  all  parts  of  their  dwelling.  Their 
physician  not  unreasonably  attributed  their  sickness  to  the  said 
"preventive."  I  could  mention  other  instances  hardly  less 
melancholy.  I  learn  from  a  private  letter,  from  a  respe(ftable 
source,  that  effedls  of  a  similar  description  were  witnessed  in 


Paris,  during  their  late  epidemic,  on  a  much  larger  scale. 
Chlorine,  then,  is  about  as  much  of  a  cholera  preventive  as 
ardent  spirits. 

But  there  is  an  indircft  injury  which  is  liable  to  result  from 
the  recommendation  and  use  of  the  chlorides,  which  has  not 
yet  been  alluded  to,  and  which  is  of  no  slight  magnitude.  If 
the  people  are  made  to  understand  that  these  substances  are 
adequate  to  the  purposes  of  cleanliness,  they  will  resort  to  them 
on  the  score  of  economy,  to  the  negledl  of  more  eflFedlual  and 
expensive  means.  We  might  argue  this  from  the  known  men- 
tal constitution  of  man.  This  was  argued  and  the  consequences 
predicted.  What  was  feared  has  taken  place.  Cleanliness  with 
us  has  been  negledled.  Faith  in  the  "  disinfectants  "  has  been 
one  cause  of  the  neglect.  Filth,  instead  of  being  removed,  has 
been  too  often  merely  sprinkled  or  mixed  with  the  chlorides. 
This  has  not  only  been  done  about  dwellings,  but  ivithm  them. 
I  have  seen  the  floors,  furniture,  etc. ,  literally  plastered  with  a 
mixture  of  filth  and  "preventives."  Removal  has  too  fre- 
quently been  negle(5led,  even  when  practicable,  in  consequence 
of  its  being  thought  unnecessary.  It  is  laborious  and  expen- 
sive, and  was  so  considered.  Besides,  it  is  an  antiquated  mode 
of  making  clean,  and,  moreover,  is  highly  tinscientific.  The 
new  and  unproved  plan  was  enthusiasticallj-  adopted.  Matters 
were  conducted  on  chemical  pri?iciples.  Common  sense  was 
scouted,  and  her  place  occupied  by  a  nobler  genius — the  genius 
of  philosophy.  The  old  and  vulgar  means  of  purifying,  such  as 
washing,  and  scouring  with  soap  and  water,  ventilation,  sweep- 
ing, scraping  and  removing,  etc.,  were  frequently  abandoned, 
not  only  as  costly,  but  as  behind  the  improveinetits  of  the  age. 

Considerable  authority  has  been  quoted  on  the  question 
under  examination,  which  would  seem  to  controvert  the  opin- 
ions and  arguments  which  have  been  advanced.  Though 
ajithority,  unsupported  bj'  fadls  and  reasoning,  passes  for  little 
with  me,  it  may  do  with  some.  By  the  way,  if  a  question 
relating  to  the  ' '  disinfecting ' '  power  of  a  substance  is  to  be 
determined  by  the  numbers  of  those  who  assert  it — those  who 
give  their  opinions  and  then  vouch  for  their  truth — chlorine  is 


not  entitled  to  our  exclusive  confidence.  The  nitrous  acid  gas 
was  once  brought  forward  with  extravagant  pretensions  as  a 
purifyer  and  antidote  to  contagious  and  miasmatic  emanations  ; 
and  if  its  efl&cacy  is  to  be  judged  of  by  the  numbers  and 
respedlability  of  those  who  attest  it,  it  is  far  better  deserving 
of  consideration  and  respedl  than  the  modern  specific :  and  yet, 
the  nitrous  acid  gas  is  now  little  thought  of  by  the  scientific 
world.  This  is  because  its  inodus  operandi  in  destroying  mor- 
bific miasms  cannot  be  explained  by  chemical  laws  !  [See  Med- 
ico-Chirurgical  Review,  Vol.  X,  page  355.]  For  the  benefit  of 
those  whose  minds  are  swaj'ed  by  authority  and  names,  I  shall 
make  a  few  extra(5ts — all  which  my  limited  space  will  allow — 
chiefly  from  medical  writings,  for  the  purpose  of  showing  the 
sense  of  the  profession  on  the  powers  of  the  chlorides  as  ' '  dis- 
infedling  agents."  And  here  may  I  take  the  liberty  to  say, 
that  physiciayis  [all  M.D.'s  are  not  physicians],  from  their 
opportunity  for  observation,  their  intimate  knowledge  oi  fa6ls 
and  all  their  bearings,  and  their  acquaintance  with  the  corredl 
mode  of  reasoning  on  medical  subjecfts,  are  best  capable  of  pass- 
ing a  corredt  judgment  on  a  question  like  that  under  considera- 
tion. Those  who  have  appeared  as  the  advocates  for  chlorine 
has  been  almost  to  a  man  chemists,  who  have  no  praH-ical  knowl- 
edge of  the  subjedl  which  they  have  handled.  Their /a^.y  have 
been  gathered  in  the  laboratory.  Their  conclusions  have  been 
the  fruit  of  study.  Their  philosophy  has  been  the  result  of 
speculation.  How  much,  then,  are  their  assertions  and  opin- 
ions worth  ? 

Dr.  Caldwell,  of  Kentucky,  a  gentleman  of  general  science 
and  of  great  eminence  in  his  profession,  uses  strong  language 
upon  this  subjecft. 

"  Combustion  excepted,  I  repeat,  that  thorough  washing  and 
ventilation  are  the  only  certain  means  discovered  to  purify  foul 
and  sickly  ships,  and  render  them  the  abodes  of  cleanliness  and 
health.     Of  hospitals  and  infirmaries  the  same  is  true. 

"It  is  not  only  useless,  then,  it  is  injurious,  to  fill  the 
wards  of  receptacles  of  the  sick  with  suffocating  and  irritating 
fumes  and  gases,  to  the  annoyance  and  distress  of  patients  with 


tender  eyes  and  weak  lungs.  I  have  never  seen  a  place  thus 
fumigated,  without  exciting  among  the  sick  painful  coughing 
and  other  disagreeable  affections.  And  if  disinfection  seemed 
to  be  the  result  of  the  process,  it  was  owing  to  the  other  means 
used  at  the  same  time,  and  not  to  fumigation. 

"  Shall  I  be  told,  in  objection  to  my  opinion  on  this  subje<5l, 
that  chlorine  gas  and  some  others  destroy  the  fetid  exhalations 
emitted  by  putrid  animal  matter,  and  in  that  way  contribute  to 
purity  ?  The  fadl  is  known  to  me  :  but  it  is  also  known,  that 
such  exhalation  is  not  the  febrile  miasm  of  which  I  am  treat- 
ing. That  poison  exists  in  its  most  \-inilent  and  destructive 
condition  unaccompanied  by  any  odor.  It  does  not  follow, 
therefore,  that  because  chlorine  gas  destroys  the  fetor  arising 
from  the  dissolution  of  animal  or  vegetable  substances,  it  will 
also  destroy  the  poison.  This  loose  substitute  for  reasoning  is 
an  abundant  source  of  error  and  mischief.  Nothing  but  an 
accurate  and  successful  experiment  is  competent  to  prove  that 
any  known  gas  is  capable  of  uniting  with  febrile  malaria,  and 
neutrahzing  it.  And  as  far  as  I  have  been  informed  myself,  such 
an  experiment  has  never  yet  been  made,  Hence  the  belief  in 
the  (anti)  miasmatic  properties  of  the  gases  referred  to  is  noth- 
ing but  hypothesis." — [American  Journal  of  Medical  Sciences 
for  August,  1 83 1.] 

Dr.  Drake,  of  Cincinnati,  a  physician  of  great  celebrity,  uses 
the  following  language  : 

' '  Not  the  least  reliance  is  to  be  placed  on  lime  and  its  chlo- 
rides as  direct  preventives  of  epidemic  cholera  ;  and  no  great 
confidence  ought  to  be  reposed  in  their  power  over  nuisances. 
It  is  better  to  remove  putrescent  matters  than  to  correcl  their 
stench  with  lime,  or  even  the  boasted  chloride.  Moreover,  an 
independent  use  of  the  last  may  and  often  has  proved  injurious 
to  health  ;  the  chlorine  gas  which  is  liberated  being,  if  breathed 
undiluted  with  atmospheric  air,  a  more  deadly  poison  than  that 
which  produces  cholera." — [Treatise  on  Epidemic  Cholera, 
July,  1832.] 

Dr.  Tully,  of  New  Haven,  whose  standing  as  a  professional 
man  and  as  a  chemical  philosopher  entities  his  opinions  to  great 
weight,  in  a  private  letter,  dated  August,  1832,  says  : 


' '  I  concur  with  you  most  fully  in  regard  to  the  supposed 
eflScacy  of  the  chloroxids  of  calcium  and  sodium  (in  other 
words  the  chlorides),  and  even  chlorine  itself,  either  for  the 
destruction  of  specific  contagious,  morbific  miasmata,  or  epi- 
demic causes,  whatever  they  may  be.  I  have  come  to  this  con- 
clusion because  I  have  not  seen  even  a  particle  of  evidence  in 
favor  of  what  is  called  their  disin/ening  powers.  I  do  not 
know,  however,  that,  on  a  subjedl  of  this  nature,  a  negative 
can  be  proved.  The  onus  probandi  must  rest  on  those  in  the 
afl&rmative.  Now  where  are  the  proofs  ?  If  there  are  any, 
would  they  not  long  before  this  have  been  adduced  ?  That 
the  chloroxids,  and  especially  the  chlorine  itself,  will  fre- 
quently destroy  offensive  smells  or  odors,  I  do  not  pretend  to 
question  ;  but  they  certainly  do  not  do  this  universally.  I 
have  myself  often  known  them  fail. 

"It  is  well  known  by  physicians  that  those  effluvia  which 
are  most  manifest  to  the  senses  possess  but  little  if  any  power 
in  the  production  of  disease  ;  while  those  which  are  most  nox- 
ious have  no  sensible  properties.  The  contagion  of  smallpox 
and  measles,  and  the  power  or  influence  by  which  jail  fever  is 
produced,  cannot  be  recognized  by  the  senses. 

' '  I  have  long  been  satisfied,  that  washing  with  soap  and 
water,  and  ventilation,  are  the  only  adequate  means  of  purifi- 
cation and,  I  will  add,  disinfection  (as  the  fashionable  and  cant 
phrase  of  the  day  is). 

"In  addition,  it  appears  to  me  that  the  chlorides,  when 
freely  used,  may  do  injury.  They  may  prove  exciting  causes 
of  disease,  when  the  predisposition  is  strong,  like  other  noxious 
exhalations." 

Dr.  Yates,  of  New  York,  makes  some  very  sensible  remarks 
on  this  subjedl : 

' '  The  power  of  '  disinfecting  agents, '  except  on  stench  and 
putridity,  I  deem  extremely  problematical.  We  want  proof 
that  the  atmosphere  is  less  pure  now  than  at  other  seasons. 
We  want  proof — only  probable  proof  that  the  air  contains  a  par- 
ticle of  infe(5ling  matter, ' '  etc. 


"  But  allowing  that  imperceptible  particles  of  infedtious  mat- 
ter exist  in  the  atmosphere,  what  proof  have  we  that  the  chlo- 
rides will  alter  their  nature  or  their  properties  ?  Only  from  this 
analogical  deducflion,  that  inasmuch  as  chloride  destroys  the 
stench  of  putridity,  it  must  of  consequence  destroy  the  sub- 
stance matter  of  infe(5tion — an  unphilosophical  deduction  at 
best.  But  let  us  come  to  a  case  in  point.  Will  chloride 
destroy  the  poisonous  quality  of  arsenic,  the  emetic  property 
of  antimony,  or  the  soporific  effect  of  opium  ?  If  not,  what 
right  have  we  to  suppose  it  will  otherwise  efFedl  an  imaginary 
particle  of  poisonous  matter  floating  in  the  atmosphere  ?  We 
cannot  know,  from  anything  that  has  yet  been  discovered,  that 
chlorides  have  the  slightest  chemical  influence  on  the  quality 
of  a?iy  matter  except  its  odor,  much  less  on  that  of  the  matter 
in  question.  Hence,  I  conclude  that  all  the  expense  incurred 
in  their  distribution  throughout  our  streets  and  yards,  is  a 
mere  boon  to  public  alarm  and  prejudice." — [Yates  on  Asiatic 
or  Spasmodic  Cholera,  August,  1832.] 

I  shall  now  make  an  extract  from  a  letter  from  Dr.  Parsons, 
of  Providence,  to  a  gentleman  in  Boston.  The  letter  was 
designed  to  show  the  ineflBcacj^  of  the  "  disinfectants." 

"The  sloop  Hero  sailed  from  New  York  on  the  17th  of  July 
(1832),  with  thirty'  passengers  on  board,  and  was  quarantined 
at  Newport  eight  days  from  her  time  of  leaving  that  city.  On 
the  day  of  landing  the  passengers,  four  of  them  were  immedi- 
ately attacked  with  Asiatic  cholera,  and  died  in  a  few  hours. 
This  vessel  had  Jive  ions  of  best  Scotch  chloride  of  lime  on  board, 
shipped  on  the  14th  of  said  month  ;  any  one  cask  of  which,  the 
owner  informs  me,  would  give  out  through  the  staves  sufiicient 
gas  to  saturate  the  atmosphere  of  the  vessel  as  efleclually  as 
would  be  done  if  the  floors  and  decks  were  sprinkled  with  the 
powder.  Yet  with  thirty  such  caskets  between  her  decks,  this  hap- 
pens to  be  the  o?ily  vessel  out  of  the  great  7iumber  arriving  with 
passengers  from  New  York,  that  has  brought  any  person  infected 
with  the  disease.'^ 

This  statement,  I  think,  must  prove  of  diflScult  digestion  to 
the  advocates  of  '  'preventives. ' '     It  contains  an  argument  which 

56 


may  serve  any  purpose  but  theirs.     It  seems  to  prove  that  chlo- 
rine is  not  the  specific,    after  all — that  science  is   not   always 
triumphant.     It  reveals  a  fact  which  may  be  justly  regarded 
as  an  outrage  on  rational  chemistry. 
Albany,  September  6,  1832." 


[l^ETTER   SIX.] 

Albany,  July  12th,    i8j2. 

Dear  Sir — The  epidemic  cholera  has  appeared  among  us 
within  the  last  few  days.  The  first  cases  we  had  of  it  were  on 
the  morning  of  the  3d  instant.  At  that  time,  two  persons  of 
intemperate  habits  were  taken  down  with  the  disease  in  its 
worst  form,  which  proved  fatal,  in  each  instance,  within  the 
course  of  a  few  hours.  On  the  4th,  there  was  another  case, 
and  on  the  5th  two  others.  All  these  were  of  a  very  decided 
chara(5ler.  They  occurred  in  distant  and  unconnedted  parts  of 
the  cit)^  and  had  no  intercourse  with  each  other.  They  are 
universally  believed  to  have  been  of  indigenous  origin.  Every 
effort  to  trace  them  to  contagion  has  entirely  failed. 

Though  I  am  willing  to  admit  all  the  fa^s  on  the  side  of  the 
anti-contagionists,  I  am  still  a  decided  advocate  for  the  doc- 
trine of  contingent  contagion,  as  maintained  by  J.  Johnson  and 
others  of  the  present  day.  I  am  firmly  of  the  opinion,  that 
cholera  may  be  contagious  under  particular  circumstances.  I 
am  led  to  think  so  not  only  from  what  has  been  noticed  here, 
but  from  what  was  witnessed  on  a  much  larger  scale  in  Mon- 
treal and  the  other  seats  of  cholera  in  the  north.  The 
truth  seems  to  be  this  : — the  disease  is  contagious  (the  terms 
contagion  and  infection  are  used  as  synonyms)  in  crowded, 
unventilated  dwellings,  amid  filth,  intemperance,  and  poverty, 
but  rarely  or  never  in  cleanly,  airy  apartments,  the  inhabitants 
of  which  are  regular  and  temperate,  well  fed,  and  well  clothed. 
I,et  a  cholera  patient  be  thrown  into  a  tenement  of  the  former 


description,  and  one-half  of  the  wretches  about  him  will  be 
almost  sure  to  sicken  within  the  space  of  three  da3-s  ;  while  a 
habitation  at  a  distance,  under  precisely  the  same  circum- 
stances, as  it  regards  its  location  and  internal  economy,  and 
the  habits  of  those  who  live  in  it,  will  perhaps  for  the  present 
escape.  Numerous  instances  might  be  referred  to,  exactly  in 
point.  The  manner  in  which  the  conclusion  derived  from 
them  is  commonly  evaded,  is  extremely  disingenuous,  and 
would  be  instantly  scouted  at  in  any  other  branch  of  physical 
science. 

Some  weeks  before  the  appearance  of  cholera  among  us, 
there  was  almost  an  entire  suspension  of  all  other  diseases. 
The  state  of  things  resembled  the  calm  that  precedes  the  storm. 
It  was  evident  that  the  epidemic  constitution  was  about  chang- 
ing. The  complaints  that  were  noticed  were  strangely  anoma- 
lous and  irregular.  They  often  blended,  and  produced  hybrids, 
or  a  more  compound  disease.  Influenza,  measles,  whooping 
cough,  and  scarlet  fever  (the  three  former  of  which  were  very 
rife  and  severe  here  during  the  winter),  frequently  seemed  to 
unite  in  the  same  person,  producing  a  disease  of  such  an  equiv- 
ocal characler,  that  it  was  diflScult  to  tell  which  element  in 
its  composition  preponderated.  Sometimes  a  number  of  cases 
would  occur  in  a  single  family,  in  immediate  succession — one 
of  which,  had  it  been  an  isolated  case,  wotdd  have  been  called 
measles  :  another,  scarlet  fever ;  and  another,  perhaps,  in- 
fluenza, or  a  kind  of  sub-pneumonia,  &c.  Intermittents  (which 
were  common)  put  on  an  unusual  appearance  ;  they  were  com- 
plicated, irregular,  marked.  At  last,  about  three  or  four  weeks 
before  the  cholera  appeared,  complaints  began  to  assume  a 
diarrhoeal  form,  showing  distinctly  the  commencement  of  a  new 
epidemic  constitution.  As  these  became  more  frequent,  and 
more  marked  in  their  character,  other  diseases  gradually  dis- 
appeared, until  they  were  all  lost  in  the  prevailing  disorder. 
They  were  at  this  time  easily  managed,  and  very  rarely 
assumed  a  serious  aspect.  They  aSec~ted  the  public  health  so 
triflingly,  that  it  was  considered  a  time  of  unusual  freedom 
from  sickness.     Phj-sicians  had  little  or  nothing  to  do.     The 

58 


smallness  of  the  number  of  deaths  in   our   city   was   almost 
unexampled. 

The  commingling  of  diseases  above  referred  to,  producing 
anomalies  of  almost  every  description,  as  if  opposite  and  con- 
tending forces  had  met,  and  each  struggled  for  the  mastery, 
was  observed  during  the  first  part  of  the  present  year,  in  the 
places  which  I  visited  at  the  north,  where  cholera  has  prevailed. 
Bowel  complaints,  too,  were  the  immediate  precursors  of  the 
epidemic,  showing,  first,  the  preponderance,  and  in  a  short 
time  the  complete  formation  of  the  present  constitution.  Not- 
withstanding these  intestinal  disorders,  it  was  a  time  of  gen- 
eral freedom  from  sickness  requiring  professional  attendance. 
This  fadl  was  so  extraordinary  in  some  places,  as  to  excite  the 
surprise  of  medical  men.  In  St.  Johns,  where  cholera  raged 
to  a  considerable  extent,  the  like  had  never  before  been  wit- 
nessed. Very  respe(5lfully  yours, 

Henry  Bronson. 


With  his  strong  individuality,  and  his  great  force 
of  character,  and  with  his  exceptionally  high  qualifi- 
cations for  maintaining  an  independent  professional 
standing,  it  would  only  have  been  natural  if  he  had 
soon  tired  of  the  secondary  position  he  was  then 
occupying. 

However  that  may  have  been,  it  was  not  long  after 
his  return  from  Canada,  and  making  his  final  report 
to  the  honorable  committee  that  had  sent  him  abroad, 
before  we  find  him,  at  the  urgent  solicitations  of  his 
father,  and  of  the  leading  citizens  of  his  native  town, 
returned  to  Waterbury.      Here  he  easily  held   the 


foremost  rank  as  a  medical  man  of  rare  attainments, 
as  he  doubtless  would  have  done  anj-where,  and  began 
at  once  a  countr}-  practice,  large  from  the  first,  which 
rapidly  became  extended  over  a  ver}'  wide  field,  and 
soon  was  counted  as  by  far  the  largest  in  Connecticut, 
and  probabl}-  in  New  England. 

During  the  closing  da^-s  of  that  j^ear,  1832,  Dr. 
Bronson  was  waited  upon  b}'  a  commission  of  medical 
gentlemen  from  Philadelphia,  offering  to  him  the 
flattering  proposal  to  become  president  of  the  leading 
medical  college  there.  The  proposition  was  enter- 
tained and  discussed.  But  after  a  conference  of  the 
most  free  and  confidental  nature,  it  was  mutuallj^ 
concluded  that  the  only  apparent  obstacle  to  his 
prompt  acceptance  of  the  in^-itation  was  his  youth. 
He  had  onh*  then  completed  his  28th  3'ear. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  3'ear  1833,  "^'^  ^^^  ^^^ 
5^oung  friend  engrossed  with  the  arduous  labors  of  a 
countrj'-  doclor,  ambitious  to  perform  to  the  fullest 
extent  everj-  dut\-  that  could  properl}*  be  required  of 
him.  His  long  rides  on  horseback,  over  the  hill 
countr)'^  of  northern  and  western  Connecticut,  and 
over  the  line  into  Massachusetts,  and  up  and  do\\Ti 
the  Housatonic  ^'alle}-,  in  the  intense  heats  of  sum- 
mer, and  the  severitv  of  the  winter's  cold,  were  at 
first  in\'igorating  to  his  constitutional  health. 


But,  after  a  few  years  of  such  hard  and  unremit- 
ting discipline,  to  which  were  added  the  peculiar 
anxieties  and  wearisome  details  common  to  such  a 
life,  his  health  began  to  show  signs  of  failure  ;  and  it 
was  with  reason  feared  by  his  friends  and  by  himself 
that,  like  his  two  brothers,  one  of  whom  was  a  physi- 
cian, he  was  in  great  danger  of  falling  a  vi6lim  to 
that  fell  disease  which  annually  has  claimed  as  its 
own,  the  most  promising  youth  of  New  England. 
And  we  feel  obliged  to  add  to  the  influence  of  his 
incessant  labors,  and  constant  exposures  to  great 
extremes  of  temperature,  the  general  impairment  of 
his  health  and  the  weakening  of  the  powers  of  resist- 
ance against  disease,  caused  by  his  experiences  at 
Montreal,  from  which  probably  he  never  entirely 
recovered. 

In  the  autumn  of  1839,  it  became  evident  to  him- 
self and  his  friends  that  he  would  be  compelled  tem- 
porarily to  relinquish  his  practice,  and  seek  recu- 
peration in  a  milder  climate.  He  left  New  York  in 
November,  by  a  small  sailing  vessel,  bound  for  the 
Mediterranean,  and  after  a  long  and  uncomfortable 
voyage  was  landed  in  Genoa,  very  much  improved 
in  health.  Spending  the  most  trying  months  of  the 
winter  in  Rome  and  Naples — visiting  more  than  once 
such  places  of  interest  as  Pompeii  and  Herculaneum, 
he  made  the  ascent  of  Vesuvius,  going  up  to  the  very 
rim  of  the  crater.      His  daily  journal,  kept  for  the 


pleasure  of  his  famil}^,  is  exceedingly  full  and  inter- 
esting in  its  connecled  record  of  the  usual  series  of 
incidental  experiences  met  with  by  tourists,  and  indi- 
cates that  he  left  behind  him  in  ItaU'  nothing 
unvisited  worth}^  of  recorded  notice.  Taking  passage 
by  steamer  at  Civita  \>cchia,  he  visited  and  critically 
explored  Marseilles  and  Lyons,  and  passing  slowly  by 
diligence  across  France  to  Paris,  he  found  himself  in 
more  congenial  surroundings.  Here  he  began  again 
his  pedestrian  excursions,  \'isiting  and  describing  all 
the  most  noted  churches,  monuments  and  localities  in 
Paris,  especially  those  of  historic  interest.  He  visited 
here,  as  afterward  in  London,  the  hospitals  and  medi- 
cal colleees  and  heard  lecture  some  of  the  most 
celebrated  medical  men  in  each  of  these  capital  cities — 
visiting  also  libraries,  museums  and  picture  galleries, 
and  theaters — and  his  journal  records  most  intelli- 
gent judgments  of  their  relative  value  and  impor- 
tance. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  chaotic  state  of  the  so- 
called  medical  sciences  in  the  last  centurj-,  and  even 
later,  I  maj-  venture  to  sa}',  without  presuming  to 
speak  with  critical  exactness,  that  the  majority  of 
medical  pracHtioners  upon  our  continent,  in  every 
period  up  to  the  earh'  3-ears  of  the  present  century, 
have  been  incapable,  through  the  absence  of  education, 
of  reasoning  closel}*  and  logicall}'  as  to  the  causes 


and  phenomena  of  disease ;  while  the  entire  popula- 
tion were  in  accord  with  the  do(5lors,  and  preferred  to 
believe  with  them  that  diseases  could  be  cured  only 
by  blood-letting — and  by  administering  to  the  sick 
powerful  and  vile  combinations  of  vegetable  and 
mineral  poisons,  designed  to  shake  to  its  very  centre, 
as  they  did,  every  organ  of  the  body. 

Within  five  or  six  years,  I  have  seen  an  elaborately 
written  prescription  of  this  sort,  a  recent  production, 
directing  the  combination  of  twelve  a6live  remedies, 
reaching  almost  a  cubit  measure  in  length — but  of 
the  extent  of  its  range  and  of  its  destructive  force  no 
report  has  ever  been  made. 

These  were  the  golden  days  of  faith  in  drugs,  when 
poly-pharmacy  was  in  the  extreme  of  fashion,  and  the 
dispensing  of  medicines  was  a  most  profitable  voca- 
tion. Most  men  in  those  early  days  were  too  illiter- 
ate, and  unable  to  escape  from  the  grinding  pressure 
of  the  laws  of  necessity  long  enough  to  acquire  a 
scientific  education ;  and  those  supposed  to  be  capa- 
ble of  imparting  such  knowledge  were  few,  and  being 
mostly  in  the  largest  cities,  they  were  inaccessible, 
and  had  themselves  become  only  partially  emanci- 
pated from  the  thraldom  of  false  science,  upon  which 
no  processes  of  corre6l  reasoning  could  be  based ;  so 
that  we  cannot  wonder,  if  men,  ignorant  of  the  great 
fadls  of  human  and  comparative  anatomy  and  physi- 


olog}-,  established  bj-  the  Almiglit}-,  were  for  many 
generations  unable  to  comprehend  that  other  and 
greater  facl,  that  under  the  unobstrucled  operations 
of  the  laws  of  nature,  his  creatures  should  be  enabled, 
in  most  cases,  to  throw  off  the  diseases  of  which  they 
had  become  the  \4ctims,  through  their  ignorance  of 
those  laws. 

Xor  is  it  surprising  if  in  those  early  daj-s  of  dark- 
ness, which  have  not  yet  entireU*  disappeared,  the 
majorit}'  of  medical  men  could  not  be  convinced  that 
a  ven'  large  proportion  of  diseases,  for  the  cure  of 
which  they  were  daih*  prescribing  a  multitude  of  very 
active  and  disturbing  drugs,  were  in  point  of  fact 
self-limited — and  would,  under  the  operation  of  natu- 
ral laws  disappear  of  themselves,  if  the  doctors  were 
not  in  the  waj-. 

Neither  were  the  people  prepared  to  receive  or  to 
tolerate  such  a  doclrine ;  and  I  am  sorr\'  to  add  that, 
even  in  the  present  generation,  such  is  the  degree  of 
popular  apathy  or  want  of  information  that,  compara- 
tiveU',  onl}'  a  few  among  the  most  enlightened  people 
an^'where,  are  able  to  appreciate  the  vast  difference 
there  is  between  being  cured  and  getting  well. 

Arriving  at  his  home  early  in  the  spring  of  1840, 
Dr.  Bronson  reported  himself  to  be  in  excellent 
health,  and  almost  immediately  resumed  his  daily 
routine  of  professional  work. 


With  his  remarkable  powers  of  mind  strengthened 
and  heightened  by  his  intimate  acquaintance  with 
books,  and  enriched  by  the  experiences  of  foreign 
travel,  and  with  a  professional  judgment  matured  in 
that  best  of  all  schools,  ten  years  of  country  prac- 
tice, supplemented  by  clinical  study  in  European 
hospitals,  and  at  the  bedside,  we  can  understand  how 
eminently  qualified  he  now  was  to  assume  the  respon- 
sibilities of  a  public  teacher  of  medicine. 

As  soon  as  he  was  fitted  to  fulfill  these  duties,  the 
place  awaited  his  acceptance ;  and  in  1842  his  ele6lion 
as  professor  of  Materia  Medica  and  Therapeutics  in 
the  faculty  of  his  Alma  Mater  was  hailed  with  great 
satisfadlion  by  the  medical  profession  in  this  and 
the  adjoining  states.  His  acceptance  of  the  eledlion, 
however,  rendered  it  necessary  for  him  to  remove  his 
residence  to  this  city,  where  he  made  no  efforts  to 
gain  patients,  but  devoted  himself  wholly  to  his 
college  work,  for  ten  years  consecutively,  when  he 
resigned  his  professorship.  Responding  to  repeated 
calls  to  resume  his  college  duties,  from  time  to  time 
he  continued  to  instruct  his  classes  until  i860,  when 
his  health  again  failing  him,  he  spent  the  winter  of 
1859-60  in  Barbadoes. 

As  a  public  teacher  of  medicine.  Dr.  Bronson  was 
eminently  successful  in  the  work  of  interesting 
young   men,    and   aiding   them   to    acquire   as    full 

6s 


knowledge  of  the  dr}^  details  of  his  department  of 
Materia  Medica  and  Therapeutics  as  they  were  able 
to  retain.  His  lectures  were  mosth'  written,  and 
were  read  slowl}^  in  a  clear,  distinct  voice,  and  an 
impressive,  deliberate  manner,  and  they  were  listened 
to  with  close  attention.  He  also  gave  to  his  classes 
occasional  lectures  upon  topics  outside  of  his  regular 
courses.  The}-  were  almost  unequaled  in  interest 
and  instru(fbion,  particularh^  if  he  chose  for  his  topic 
some  one  of  the  great  fundamental  principles  of  med- 
ical science.  He  was  then  at  his  best,  and  showed 
the  highest  qualities  of  a  great  teacher ;  he  needed 
the  stimulus  of  a  great  subject  to  bring  out  the  full 
exercise  of  his  powers.  ^Man}-  men,  however,  have 
excelled  him  as  a  teacher  of  the  elementary  fa<5ls  of 
science,  but  as  a  writer  upon  medical  philosophy  he  was 
ver}'-  attractive.  The  societ}''  is  familiar  with  the 
admirable  and  forcible  style  of  his  writing,  in  the 
man)^  papers  he  has  read  before  it. 

Dr.  Bronson  inherited  many  of  the  strong  points 
of  his  intelledlual  charac^ter  from  his  father ;  and  so 
generall}^  was  this  facl  recognized  b}'  those  among 
whom  each  of  these  remarkable  men  was  well  known, 
that  it  has  often  been  said  that  a  sketch  that  would 
do  justice  to  the  father  would  be  recognized  as  amply 
sufficient  for  the  son.  But,  in  this  estimate  of  the 
mental  qualities  of  our  friend,  those  who  knew  him 


well  are  unwilling  to  concur.  While  it  was  undoubt- 
edly true  that  in  the  natural  elements  of  his  char- 
a(fi;er,  as  well  as  in  the  struAure  of  his  moral  and 
intelledlual  faculties,  he  greatly  resembled  his  father, 
having  similar  tastes,  and  upon  many  questions 
arriving  at  similar  conclusions  from  the  same  points 
of  view,  and  in  some  instances  drawing  the  same 
conclusions  by  the  same  course  of  instantaneous  or 
intuitive  logical  dedu6lion,  and  to  a  degree  cherish- 
ing the  same  excellent  opinions  of  his  own  infalli- 
bility of  judgment,  to  which  he  had  much  better 
reason  than  most  men  to  lay  claim ;  certain  it  is,  that 
his  powers  of  perception  and  analysis  were  more 
subtle  and  acute,  and  he  possessed  in  a  greater  degree 
those  mental  traits,  and  that  spirit  of  devotion  to  a 
definite  purpose  and  end  which  enabled  him  to  pur- 
sue successfully  the  lines  of  historic  inquiry  marked 
out  by  his  father,  afifedling  more  or  less  closely  large 
numbers  of  families,  comprising  one  of  the  wealthiest 
of  the  wide-spreading  industrial  centres  of  our  state. 
He  was  by  nature  a  historian ;  and  any  one  led  by 
motives  of  curiosity  or  of  personal  interest  to  exam- 
ine critically  the  recorded  history  of  Waterbury  will, 
I  think,  be  surprised  by  the  evidences  of  the  labori- 
ous personal  investigations  to  ascertain  necessary 
fa6ls,  and  so  far  as  was  possible  by  persistent  efforts 
to  gather  them  personally,  and  from  the  original 
records. 


To  say  nothing  of  tlie  gathering  of  historical  fadls, 
the  labor  of  acquiring  the  traditions  of  a  country  side 
through  half  a  dozen  populous  manufa6luring  towns, 
and  the  preparation  for  the  press  of  the  biographical 
sketches  of  a  large  number  of  business  men,  was 
great  and  exhausting  when  added  to  the  already 
heavy  burdens  of  a  busy  physician.  The  history  of 
Waterbury  forms  a  compa6l  volume  of  600  pages, 
with  thirty  portraits  and  many  local  views,  engraved 
on  steel,  and  was  in  itself  not  a  small  undertaking 
for  one  who  could  devote  to  it  his  entire  time ;  but 
when  we  consider  the  very  extended  research  required 
to  trace  out  the  natives  of  Waterbury  who  had 
removed  to  other  States,  we  can  form  perhaps  a  just 
estimate  of  the  relative  magnitude  of  the  labor 
expended  upon  even  so  small  a  work,  carried  on  as  it 
was  under  the  pressure  of  public  duties,  as  well  as  of 
professional  and  other  literary  labor. 

That  this  arduous  work  was  continued  under  very 
discouraging  circumstances,  while  it  daily  grew  upon 
his  hands,  was  evident  to  those  near  enough  to 
observe ;  and  they  could  but  admire  and  wonder  at 
the  courage  and  perseverance  with  which,  under  so 
many  difi&culties,  he  completed  his  self-imposed  task. 

I  have  been  familiar  with  a  considerable  number  of 
histories  of  towns  and  coiinties  in  New  England,  but 
I  know  of  none  with  the  same  limited  scope  that  are 
more  valuable  than  this.     Indeed,  I  may  say  without 


fear  of  contradidlion,  tliat  the  beneficent  influences 
upon  a  New  England  community,  of  sucli  a  chronicle 
of  the "  fa(5ls  and  opinions  that  were  coincident  with 
the  laying  of  the  foundations  of  society,  and  which  in 
future  generations  shall  mark  in  its  successive  edi- 
tions the  changes  of  an  advancing  civilization,  cannot 
be  over-estimated. 

Not  by  any  means  the  least  important  of  the  his- 
torical work  accomplished  by  Dr.  Bronson,  was  the 
interesting  series  of  historical  and  biographical  papers 
pertaining  to  the  medical  history  of  New  Haven 
County,  and  read  before  this  society  between  Decem- 
ber, 1872,  and  Odlober,  1876,  comprising  150  pages 
of  Vol.  2 — including  the  professional  histories  of 
eight  members  of  the  New  Haven  Medical  Associa- 
tion. He  says  in  a  prefatory  statement,  that  in  the 
following  papers  "  I  have  aimed  to  put  in  an  endur- 
ing form  much  valuable  and  often  perishable  material 
gathered  several  years  ago  from  many  sources — 
records,  manuscripts,  documents  and  letters,  old 
newspapers,  traditions,  and  living  witnesses. 

In  their  preparation  I  hoped  to  make  an  acceptable 
contribution  to  general  history,  and  at  the  same  time 
render  a  special  and  much  needed  service  to  the  med- 
ical profession. 

Before  the  Revolution  there  was  not  much  inter- 
course between  the  different  se6lions  of  our  country. 

69 


A  limited  coasting  trade  along  the  Atlantic  border 
broueht  the  commercial  classes  in  the  maritime 
towns  into  frequent  contadl ;  but  the  benefits  of  this 
intercourse  scarcely  extended  to  the  interior. 

Bach  colony — in  many  instances  each  town — was 
to  a  large  extent  an  isolated  community.  But  the 
war,  which  broke  out  in  1775,  brought  with  it  great 
changes.  It  excited  the  wildest  passions  ;  introduced 
selfishness,  corruption,  vice,  miser}^,"  and  what  in  his 
estimation  was  the  worst  of  all  the  consequences  of 
war,  "  a  deluge  of  paper  money.  But,"  he  adds, 
"  certain  advantages  flowed  from  it." 

The  medical  profession  of  the  State  highl}^  appre- 
ciated the  medical  histories  of  Connedlicut,  as  pre- 
pared for  us  by  Dr.  Bronson,  in  the  very  valuable 
and  interesting  biographical  notices  of  prominent 
physicians  in  our  early  days,  and  read  from  time  to 
time  before  this  society,  as  well  as  other  papers  on 
the  same  general  subje(5l,  printed  in  the  Proceedings 
of  the  Connedlicut  Medical  Society.  They  still  con- 
tinue to  be  read  as  classics  by  all  the  medical  men  of 
the  State,  whose  tastes  incline  them  to  preserve  the 
historical  literature  of  their  profession ;  but  unfortu- 
natel}^,  owing  to  the  ver}^  limited  edition  that  was 
published,  these  papers,  being  out  of  print,  are  no 
longer  generally  obtainable. 


speaking  further  of  tlie  "  days  of  tlie  Revolution  " 
and  tlie  formative  stages  of  the  medical  profession  in 
those  turbulent  times,  he  says,  "  Large  bodies  of  men 
were  gathered  from  every  quarter  and  associated  for 
military  purposes  ;  and  to  supply  them  with  food  and 
clothing,  arms  and  equipments,  an  extended  internal 
trade  was  required.  The  se6lions  near  and  remote 
were  for  the  first  time  brought  face  to  face,  and  bound 
together  in  desperate  endeavor  for  a  common  obje6l. 
Men  who  had  before  been  strangers  became  co- 
workers and  personal  friends.  Though  the  standard 
of  morality  was  debased,  they  learned  well  the 
advantages  of  union,  of  combined  effort,  and  social 
intercourse  which  they  were  slow  to  forget.  The 
accomplishments  which  individuals  in  high  positions 
possessed  became  by  contact  and  the  magnetism  of 
superior  natures  common  property,  and  reproduced 
their  like.  Emulation  was  excited  and  society 
enlightened,  and  in  a  certain  sense  improved  and 
refined. 

There  were  in  the  army  a  few  accomplished  and 
many  respectable  physicians  and  surgeons  who  wit- 
nessed and  shared  the  benefits  of  united  effort — of 
familiar  professional  intercourse — and  who,  when 
peace  returned,  feared  the  disintegration  and  depress- 
ing influences  of  isolation.  It  was  to  prevent  this 
disastrous  result  to  a  fine  body  of  medical  men,  who 
had  largely  contributed  to  the  success  of  the  colonial 


armies  in  the  field,  and  the  independence  of  these 
United  States  among  the  nations  of  the  world,  that 
our  army  surgeons  resolved  themselves  into  county 
and  State  organizations  to  promote  professional  excel- 
lence, as  well  as  to  maintain,  for  the  benefit  of  the 
whole  country^,  the  nucleus  of  what  they  saw  was  to 
become  one  of  the  learned  and  most  useful  professions 
upon  our  continent." 

As  a  writer  upon  finance  and  political  econom}-. 
Dr.  Bronson's  opinions  have  always  been  received 
with  great  respe(5l  wherever  thc}^  have  become  known. 
He  was  an  advocate  of  hard  mone3\  His  father  also 
was  a  local  authority  on  financial  questions,  and 
established  the  first  bank  in  Waterbur}-,  of  which  he 
was  alwa3''S  the  president  during  his  life  ;  and  nisiny 
of  the  Bronson  name,  in  this  and  other  States,  have 
acquired  renown  as  financiers,  or  as  editors  of  finan- 
cial journals  and  leading  newspapers  outside  of  New 
England. 

Dr.  Bronson  has  read  before  this  societ}-  several 
papers  upon  financial  topics,  which  have  been  pub- 
lished in  its  archives,  and  have  attracted  wide  atten- 
tion,— and  I  have  high  authorit}'  for  sa3ang  that 
these  papers,  or  an}-  one  of  them,  would  be  sufficient 
to  establish  a  brilliant  reputation  for  anj^  writer  upon 
financial  questions. 


I  need  not  remind  tlie  society  that  in  1863  lie  read 
before  this  body,  at  convenient  intervals,  a  very 
remarkable  series  of  papers,  having  for  its  title  as  a 
completed  publication,  "  A  Historical  Accoimt  of 
ConneBicut  Currency^  Continental  Money^  and  the 
Finajices  of  the  Revolution^''  pp.  192 — forming  about 
one-half  of  the  first  volume  of  the  society's  transac- 
tions. 

Ten  years  afterward,  he  read  before  you  a  sup- 
plementary paper  entitled,  "  The  Money  Problem 
Agahi^'' — which  was  perhaps  more  easily  understood 
by  the  popular  mind,  but  the  first  series  was  of 
greater  importance  historically. 

I  had  proposed  to  myself  to  insert  here  an  abstract 
of  certain  pages  from  the  "  Money  Problem,"  in 
which  I  was  interested,  but  it  occurs  to  me  that  while 
I  am  not  competent  to  generalize  profitably  upon  the 
subje6l,  the  members  of  the  society  are  all  familiar 
with  Dr.  Bronson's  financial  views  as  set  forth  so 
fully  in  the  valuable  papers  he  has  from  time  to  time 
presented  here.  A  financial  authority  and  a  close 
student  of  political  economy,"^  whose  intimate  relations 
with  Dr.  Bronson  qualified  him  to  form  a  valuable 
opinion,  said  of  him  : 

*  Mr.  George  A.  Butler. 


"  He  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  currency  question 
during  the  whole  period  between  the  passage  of  the 
Legal-Tender  Adl  and  the  resumption  of  specie  pay- 
ments. To  him  it  was  a  practical  question  of  the 
deepest  import,  affedling  in  the  most  serious  manner 
the  prosperity,  welfare  and  happiness  of  the  people  of 
this  countrj^  He  clearly  foresaw  the  dreadful  evils 
and  disasters  that  must  inevitably  result  from  that 
legislation. 

There  was  never  any  doubt  in  his  mind,  from  the 
day  that  measure  passed  Congress  until  the  final 
catastrophe,  as  to  what  the  result  of  that  legislation 
would  be.  He  condemned  it  as  an  economic  blunder 
of  the  greatest  magnitude,  but  it  was  more  than  that 
to  him ;  and  as  a  patriot  he  felt  and  deplored  the 
injury  it  was  to  be  to  our  finances  through  the  evils 
growing  out  of  the  war ;  and  as  a  man  he  sympa- 
thized with  those  who  lost  their  property  by  the 
insidious  working  of  an  irredeemable  legal-tender 
paper  money  ;  and  because  most  of  them  would  never 
comprehend  how  their  misfortunes  came  upon  them." 

Favored  as  he  was  by  fortune  and  the  circum- 
stances of  his  birth,  surrounded  by  the  happy  results 
of  wise  and  successful  mechanical  combinations, 
pushed  to  the  utmost  limits  of  artistic  development 
by  abundant  capital  and  skill,  we  can  see  by  what 
an  easy  grade  he  became  wealthy  without  exertion. 


Forming  his  views  of  finance  in  such  a  school,  where 
every  scrap  of  metal  was  made  to  yield  up  its  equiva- 
lent of  the  gold  basis  that  was  in  it,  he  could  have 
come  naturally  to  no  other  conviction  than  the  one 
he  so  often  expressed  in  respe6l  to  the  financial  con- 
dudl  of  our  late  war,  to  wit :  that  the  war  could  have 
been  as  speedily  and  as  successfully  brought  to  a 
conclusion  on  a  specie  basis  as  it  was  on  a  basis  of 
paper  money — in  either  case  the  accumulation  of  an 
immense  debt  was  the  inevitable  result.  The  opin- 
ions of  wise  men  differed  widely,  however,  on  this 
question,  and  do  still  differ ;  but  it  is  probable  that 
the  majority  of  our  people  favored  the  use  of  a  green- 
back currency.  Dr.  Bronson  attached  himself  to  the 
Herbert  Spencer  school  of  political  economists.  They 
agree  in  their  statements  as  to  the  shockingly  deplor- 
able condition  in  which  are  all  existing  things — 
church  and  state  and  social  organizations.  They 
leave  us  in  no  doubt  as  to  what  really  onght  to  be  the 
aBual  condition  of  the  entire  population  of  the  world. 
But  they  give  us  no  idea  of  what  is  a  possible  and 
practicable  working  plan,  by  means  of  which  all 
peoples  can  be  placed  on  the  same  elevated  plane,  in 
such  relations  as  to  secure  to  them  universal  happi- 
ness. 

Just  at  this  point  we  may,  perhaps,  be  able  to  trace 
the  beginning  of  a  quality  of  his  mind  which,  while 


it  was  not  accompanied  by  any  of  those  absurd 
vagaries  that  are  commonly  supposed  b}^  the  weak 
to  indicate  the  adoption  of  infidel  principles,  and  by 
which  phj'sicians  are  thought  to  be  too  easily  influ- 
enced, there  was  in  the  constitution  of  his  mind  a 
notable  absence  of  the  element  of  faith  as  understood 
by  the  Christian  world — that  "  faith  which  is  the  sub- 
stance of  things  hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things  not 
seen."  Suppl3'ing  its  place,  perhaps,  if  that  were 
possible,  we  find  an  absorbing  reverence  for  the  law 
and  the  testimojiy. 

His  first  requirement  was  for  the  fadls — the  proofs 
— and  from  these  he  deduced  the  law.  There  was  in 
his  being  no  sentiment  or  shadow  of  irreligion.  His 
soul  was  devout,  and  his  whole  life  without  reproach. 
He  was  honest,  natural  and  simple-minded  in  all  his 
ways.  True  in  everything  which  a  good  conscience 
might  approve,  he  abhorred  and  detested  deceitful 
men,  and  shams  of  ever}^  sort.  Familiar,  by  pro- 
tracted and  repeated  systematic  study,  with  history, 
theology  and  part}^  politics,  he  had  no  affinities  with 
the  two  last — considering  them  as  resting  upon 
changeable  and  insecure  foundations,  and  as  not 
essential  to  the  highest  welfare  of  mankind. 

Dr.  Bronson  was  alwaj^s  deeply  and  intelligently 
interested  in  securing  for  all  the  people^  fi-ee  of  cost^ 
the  best  common  school  education,  by  the  best  teach- 

76 


ers  that  could  be  procured — sucli  an  education  as 
would  best  Harmonize  with  the  tastes,  habits  and 
mental  needs  of  the  majority  of  our  people ;  and  for 
them  he  was  always  a  strenuous  advocate  of  a  better 
education,  and  of  a  much  more  pradlical  kind  than 
was  commonly  afforded  anywhere.  But  he  was  also 
a  decided  opponent  of  the  imaginative  schemes  of 
those  dreamers,  none  too  well-educated  themselves, 
who  desired  to  see  all  our  common  schools  grouped 
around  Yale  College — and  so  conformed  as  to  consti- 
tute the  integral  parts  of  a  great  University,  inter- 
dependent upon  each  other — while  the  powerfully 
attractive  force  of  the  great  central  body,  causing  its 
satellites  to  revolve  in  regular  orbits  about  it,  would 
represent,  in  full  operation,  what  has  come  now  to  be 
known  in  some  circles  as  the  "  University  extension  " 
plan — by  which  incentives  to  acquire  the  elements  of 
a  liberal  education — a  mere  smattering  of  universal 
knowledge — are  held  out  to  all  as  most  desirable, 
irrespedlive  of  their  needs,  or  of  their  capacities  to 
receive  an  education. 

The  disappointing  and  unsatisfying  fruits  of  this 
system,  designed  to  offer  to  all  our  youth  a  free 
classical  and  scientific  education,  are  to  day  painfully 
apparent ;  and  our  present  system  of  free  High  School 
education  has  come  to  be  deprecated  by  an  increasing 
number  of  the  best  informed  minds,  as  a  sy stein  of 
education  that  does  not  educate — and  as  being  in  no 


sense  adapted  to  supply  the  vital  needs  of  that  large 
class  whose  lot  in  life  will  compel  them  to  earn  their 
support  by  manual  labor,  or  its  equivalent.  For 
entertaining  and  defending  these  views  he  was  vio- 
lently assailed  by  anonymous  but  well  known  per- 
sons, whose  unwillingness  to  endorse  their  crude 
notions  by  printing  them  over  their  true  signatures 
can  no  longer  be  regarded  with  surprise.  But  he  was 
sustained  as  to  the  intrinsic  validity  of  his  opinions 
by  his  abiding  convid;ion,  that  whatever  theories  men 
may  adopt  concerning  the  development  of  the  human 
intelledl,  any  departures  from  the  laws  of  mind,  in 
the  natural  processes  of  its  growth,  can  only  result  in 
irreparable  injury  and  disappointment. 

And  now,  the  melancholy  pleasure  is  allowed  to 
those  who  labored  by  his  side  so  many  years  ago  in 
the  interests  of  true  education,  to  note  on  every  hand 
expressions  of  useless  regrets  that  his  wise  counsels 
were  not  permitted  to  prevail. 

While  Dr.  Bronson's  mental  powers,  both  analyti- 
cal and  synthetical,  were  naturally  of  a  high  order, 
they  were  largely  increased  by  the  incessant  demands 
made  upon  them ;  their  growth,  under  the  general 
law,  being  stimulated  by  those  demands  for  work,  and 
by  the  performance  of  it.  With  a  retentive  memory 
for  fadls,  he  possessed  in  marked  degree  what  is 
known  as  the  scientific  mind, — and  having  been  always 

78 


a  student  of  tlie  physical  sciences,  lie  was  capable  of 
justly  considering,  from  almost  any  point  of  view,  the 
physical  problems  that  might  be  presented  to  it.  The 
steady  equipoise  with  which  he  firmly  held  for  judg- 
ment the  evenly  balanced  scales  of  argument,  each 
at  times  perhaps  more  weighty  than  the  other,  indi- 
cated the  highly  judicial  qualities  of  his  mind — a 
mind  fortified  by  a  comprehensive  knowledge  of  the 
principles  of  jurisprudence,  as  well  as  of  statutory 
law.  So  that,  if  he  had  not  been  the  great  physician 
that  he  was,  in  the  broadest  sense  of  that  term,  it 
naturally  follows  that  he  would  have  chosen  the  legal 
profession,  and  would  have  become  a  great  constitu- 
tional lawyer, — or  one  of  the  distinguished  jurists  of 
our  land, — and  could  have  worn  with  adequate  dignity 
and  grace  the  honors  of  its  highest  judicial  position. 

In  view  of  his  great  natural  endowments,  and  of 
his  remarkable  acquisitions  in  learning,  such  a  pre- 
didlion  might  safely  have  been  foreshadowed  in  the 
masterful  manner  in  which  he  used  the  English  lan- 
guage, (and  he  was  not  ignorant  of  foreign  tongues) 
— in  the  critical  choice  of  words, — in  the  judgment 
and  good  taste  shown  in  the  formation  of  his  sen- 
tences,— in  the  strategical  skill  with  which  his  argu- 
ments were  construdled  and  applied, — and  lastly,  in 
the  convincing  power  of  his  rhetoric,  and  the  accu- 
mulating force  of  his  language,  increased  by  the  very 


deliberate  manner  of  his  utterance, — all  combining  to 
compel,  as  it  were,  his  auditors  to  adopt  as  their  own 
the  conclusions  previously  reached  through  the  logi- 
cal deductions  of  his  own  mind. 

It  is  almost  half  a  century  since  the  day  I  was  first 
made  known  to  him,  and  I  remember  the  occasion  as 
one  never  to  be  forgotten  ;  for  during  all  this  long 
period  of  close  and  almost  daily  intercourse,  there 
was  never  even  the  shadow  of  a  cloud  between  us. 
It  was  a  period  of  confiding  and  unbroken  friendship 
which  was  to  me  most  delightful  and  profitable. 

Honest,  natural  and  simple  in  his  character  and 
tastes, — sincere  in  every  manifestation, — unreserved 
in  all  declarations  of  his  opinions  if  he  uttered  them 
at  all, — loyal  to  every  known  duty  or  obligation,  his 
simple  word  could  not  be  strengthened  by  his  bond. 

His  business  transa6lions  were  condudled  with 
exadlness  of  accounting,  and  upon  a  basis  of  strictest 
integrity ;  while  he  would  retain  nothing  that  could 
be  rightfully  claimed  by  another. 

Respedled  and  admired  by  his  own  profession,  he 
enjoyed  in  an  unusual  degree  the  public  esteem  and 
confidence. 

Like  other  men  of  wealth  who  have  suffered  in 
the  estimation  of  the  public  whom  they  did  not  take 


into  their  confidence  in  the  management  of  their 
affairs,  and  whose  right  hand  has  not  been  permitted 
to  know  what  was  done  by  his  left  hand — who  pre- 
ferred in  other  words  to  keep  his  private  affairs  from 
the  public  knowledge,  Dr.  Bronson  was  regarded  by 
some  who  did  not  know  him  well  as  being  parsimo- 
nious. 

In  my  judgment  of  his  character  nothing  could  well 
be  farther  from  the  truth.  He  knew  the  value  of 
money  ;  he  also  knew  the  average  qualities  of  men. 
Moreover,  he  was  not  ignorant  of  the  injuries  so  often 
sustained  by  communities  and  individuals,  through 
thoughtless  benefactions  for  obje6ls  which  were  either 
not  then  needed,  or  which  communities  and  individ- 
uals could  well  enough  provide  for  themselves.  With 
his  right  hand  he  gave  to  Yale  College  eighty-six 
thousand  dollars  toward  founding  a  professorship  of 
Comparative  Anatomy  and  Physiology — to  the  New 
Haven  Hospital  he  gave  twenty  thousand  dollars,  and 
to  the  Hospital  at  Waterbury  he  gave  ten  thousand 
dollars. 

But  with  his  left  hand  he  privately  distributed 
annually  thousands  of  dollars  among  needy  people 
more  or  less,  or  not  at  all  related  to  him ;  and  the 
continuance  of  these  pensions  and  legacies  remains  a 
verbal  charge  upon  his  estate,  and  is  voluntarily 
assumed  by  his  heirs.     Mortgages  upon  property  of 


otlier  needy  friends  upon  which  he  had  for  j^ears  paid 
the  interest  are  no  longer  to  be  found.  In  other  cases, 
permanent  repairs  to  homesteads  were  ordered,  no  one 
knew  by  whom.  And  in  still  other  directions  the 
landscape  has  been  made  to  blossom,  under  the  ben- 
eficent guidance  of  his  bounteous  left  hand^  and  many 
grateful  hearts  have  been  made  glad. 

:j:  *  Hi  *  *  * 

In  presenting  to  the  public,  and  to  such  members 
of  the  medical  profession  as  may  see  them,  these 
sketches  of  Dr.  Bronson,  and  his  letters  written  at 
Montreal  to  the  Albany  Committee  in  1832  upon  the 
subjedl  of  the  epidemic  of  Asiatic  cholera  then 
prevalent  in  Canada,  it  is  deemed  unnecessary  to  call 
attention  to  the  great  advances  which  have  been 
made  in  every  department  of  medical  science  since 
they  were  written — more  than  sixty  j^ears  ago — 
particularly  in  ba6leriology,  which  at  that  time  had 
no  existence,  but  also,  and  mainly,  in  pathology  and 
therapeutics,  with  both  of  which  branches  of  study 
Dr.  Bronson  was,  during  the  years  of  his  a(5live  life, 
constantly  occupied. 

Those  also,  who  were  by  many  years  his  juniors 
in  the  profession,  may  be  interested  to  know  that, 
although  not  a  microscopist,  he  was  an  appreciative 
student  of  whatever  has  been  published  on  bacteri- 
ology in  late  years,  since  1849  5 — ^-^^  slow  going  as 


lie  always  was,  and  admitting  with  reludlance  what- 
ever was  doubtful,  and  requiring  demonstrative 
proof  whenever  that  was  possible,  he  yet  looked 
hopefully  forward  to  microscopical  research  as  offer- 
ing possibly  a  future  field  of  discovery  as  to  the 
causes  of  several  epidemic  diseases,  the  most  promi- 
nent of  which  were  typhoid  fever  and  Asiatic  cholera. 

During  that  and  the  years  immediately  following, 
the  questions  as  to  the  origin  and  nature  of  these  two 
diseases  were  very  often  discussed  in  our  medical 
meetings ;  and  there  were  not  wanting  those  who 
fancied  they  saw  a  conne6lion  between  them,  and  it 
was  only  by  a  process  of  exclusion  that  the  question 
was  finally  narrowed  down  to  the  very  indefinite  and 
unsatisfactory  conclusion  that  the  causes  of  these  two 
infecftious  and  contagious  diseases  were  in  their 
nature  tellural.  It  was  during  these  discussions  that 
I  first  heard  of  "  fever  germs  of  definite  forms  float- 
ing in  the  atmosphere." 

For  the  better  understanding  of  what  I  am  about 
to  mention,  and  as  illustrative  of  some  of  the  rarer 
qualities  of  his  mental  constitution,  it  may  be  said 
that,  in  the  discussions  of  unsettled  questions,  partic- 
ularly such  as  related  to  the  medical  sciences,  it  was 
always  Dr.  Bronson's  preference  to  be  for  the  time 
associated  with  some  friend  holding  opinions  in  diredl 


opposition  to  his  own — with  some  one  for  whose 
qualities  of  mind  and  heart  he  could  entertain  the 
highest  respedl  and  esteem.  With  such  a  contestant 
he  delighted  to  study,  even  for  many  weeks,  any 
questions  of  common  interest. 

Any  presentation  therefore  of  the  historical  rela- 
tions of  Dr.  Bronson  to  the  invasion  of  our  hemi- 
sphere by  Asiatic  cholera  in  1832,  would  be  incom- 
plete which  did  not  include  within  its  scope  some 
notice  of  his  intimate  personal  friend,  and  zealous 
colleague  in  after  years,  Charles  Hooker — born  1799 
— Yale,  1820 — M.D.  1823,  ^^^  professor  of  Anatomy 
and  Physiology  from  1838  until  his  decease  in  1863. 
Living  for  many  years  near  each  other  in  the  same 
street,  these  men  of  congenial  minds,  but  dissimilar 
tastes  and  habits  of  thought,  became  intimate  and 
inseparable  friends.  With  daily  opportunities  for 
the  interchange  of  thoughts,  they  formed  an  element 
of  great  strength  and  commanding  influence  in  our 
small  professional  community,  while  each  of  them 
enjoyed  the  affedlionate  personal  regard  of  the  entire 
body. 

In  the  year  1865,  Professor  Bronson  read  before 
the  Connedlicut  Medical  Society,  an  exceedingly 
interesting  sketch  of  his  deceased  friend  Charles 
Hooker,  from  which  I  quote  his  language  describing 
the  experiences  of  the  latter  in  the  treatment  of 
cholera  in  the  epidemic  of  1832,  as  most  valuable  and 


84 


instriidlive  in  themselves,  and  quite  germane  to  the 
historical  character  of  this  paper ;  but  more  especially 
because  of  the  clear  refle6led  light,  which  at  this 
great  distance  of  time  they  cast  upon  the  modern 
germ  theory  of  disease,  as  now  enunciated  and 
taught  by  the  foremost  bacteriologists  of  our  time — 
but  which,  it  may  still  be  said,  are  held  stcbjudice  by 
many  of  the  best  educated  medical  men. 

Since  the  death  of  Dr.  Hooker,  favorable  opinions 
have  been  often  and  freely  expressed,  regarding  the 
advanced  views  held  by  him  as  to  the  causation  and  a 
more  philosophical  treatment  of  a  number  of  important 
diseases,  then  but  imperfectly  understood  ;  but 
strengthened  as  these  views  were  by  the  logical 
reasoning  of  his  friend  Bronson,  they  became,  and 
still  remain  the  settled  therapeutic  theories  of  some 
of  our  best  praAitioners.  In  the  course  of  his 
remarks,  Dr.  Bronson  said  of  him  :  "  Though  some 
physicians,  as  was  to  have  been  expelled,  were  accus- 
tomed to  smile  at  the  persistency  with  which  he 
urged  his  peculiar  views  and  methods  of  treatment, 
they  were  very  favorably  received,  and  generally 
adopted,  particularly  by  the  younger  members  of  the 
profession.  His  chosen  remedies  and  favorite  modes 
of  management  are  now  (1865)  in  common  use  in 
this  sedion  of  the  State.  Perhaps  his  opinions  modi- 
fied the  practice  which  prevails  to-day,  more  than 
those  of  any  man  who  has  lately  lived  among  us." 

8s 


In  this  cautiously  expressed  opinion,  I  am  confi- 
dent that  most,  if  not  all  of  the  living  contemporaries 
of  Dr.  Charles  Hooker  in  that  day,  would  have 
heartily  concurred. 

What  is,  however,  of  greater  historical  interest  to 
us  in  this  connection,  is  the  relations  which  Hooker 
sustained  to  the  first  invasion  of  cholera  among  us, 
and  his  published  report  of  its  course  and  treatment 
in  this  city.  Of  these  Dr.  Bronson  adds :  "  In  the 
summer  of  1832,  that  scourge  of  the  East,  the 
epidemic  cholera,  made  its  first  appearance  in  New 
Haven.  Do6lor  Hooker  took  a  deep  interest  in  the 
treatment  of  the  new  disease,  and  published  an 
account  of  his  experience  (with  it)  in  the  Boston 
Medical  and  Surgical  Journal  for  July  24th,  1833. 
The  first  twelve  cases  which  came  under  his  notice 
were  treated  with  opium,  calomel  in  frequent  small 
doses,  stimulants,  irritants  and  external  heat, — the 
common  practice ;  six  recovered  and  six  died.  The 
next  twenty-one  cases  were  managed  in  a  different 
way.  Calomel  was  given  in  large  and  frequent  doses, 
commencing  with  twenty,  forty  or  sixty  grains. 
Subsequently,  from  eight  to  twenty  grains  were 
administered  every  hour,  or  at  longer  intervals, 
according  to  the  severity  of  the  symptoms. 

At  the  same  time,  small  and  frequent  doses  of 
tincture  of  camphor  and  pieces  of  ice  were  ordered, 
and    heat    and    irritants   applied    externally.       But 


86 


calomel,  (given  in  dry  powder  and  followed  by  a 
teaspoonful  of  cold  water,)  was  tlie  sHeet  anchor. 
One  patient  took  two  hundred  and  sixteen  grains  in 
thirty-six  hours  with  the  best  results.  Of  the  twenty- 
one  cases  managed  in  this  way  nineteen  recovered. 
The  large  doses  of  calomel,  instead  of  producing  a 
cathartic  effe(5l,  allayed  vomiting  and  purging,  and 
completely  suspended  peristaltic  action,  as  proved  by 
the  application  of  the  ear  to  the  abdomen. 

If  in  six  or  eight  hours  intestinal  motion  was  not 
resumed,  mild  laxatives  were  employed." 

Before  quoting  further  from  Dr.  Bronson's  interest- 
ing biographical  sketch  of  his  friend  Hooker,  which 
deserves  to  have  had  a  far  wider  circulation  than  it 
has  yet  met  with  among  the  profession  of  our  own 
country,  no  apology  need  be  offered  for  resuming 
here  the  history  of  the  cholera  epidemic  of  1849,  ^^ 
which  Dr.  Bronson  was  personally  cognizant. 

Speaking  now,  however,  from  my  own  limited 
experience  as  one  of  the  younger  physicians,  I  may 
state  that  the  sickness  of  that  year  which  occupied 
their  attention  very  early  in  the  spring,  and  was 
almost  universally  prevalent,  was  an  unmanageable 
form  of  dysentery,  attended  from  the  first  with 
marked  typhoid  symptoms,  rapidly  proving  fatal  in 
many  instances,  and  being  quickly  merged  into  a 
fully  developed  epidemic  of  cholera. 

87 


In  the  retrospective  opinions  of  many  physicians, 
the  fatal  sickness  of  the  year  was  considered  to  have 
been  a  strange  intermingling  of  typhoid  fever,  d3'sen- 
tery  and  Asiatic  cholera,  from  the  beginning. 

With  the  exception  of  Professor  Hooker  and  two  or 
three  others,  all  the  physicians  of  the  city  who  had 
cholera  patients  treated  them  in  the  manner  already 
described,  with  opium  in  repeated  doses,  and  small 
doses  of  calomel.  If  any  of  these  cases  recovered, 
they  must  have  been  very  few,  for  at  this  distance 
of  time  I  am  unable  to  recall  any  recoveries  among 
them. 

The  cholera  visited  us  again,  with  increasing 
mortalit}^  in  the  years  1854  and  1855.  It  was 
managed  as  heretofore  in  various  wa3's,  and  with 
similar  results.  Dr.  Hooker's  treatment,  modified 
by  himself  now,  to  the  administration  of  a  single  dose 
of  sixty  grains  of  dry  calomel,  followed  by  a  teaspoon- 
ful  of  water,  w^as  adopted  by  many  more  physicians 
in  the  city  and  throughout  the  state,  and  was  almost 
without  an  exception  successful.  It  was  relied  upon 
with  great  confidence  by  those  who  used  it,  empyrical 
as  it  most  certainly  was.  Speculating  in  later  days 
as  to  the  true  significance  of  the  phenomena  which 
occurred  under  our  own  critical  observ^ation,  but 
without  the  powder  of  analysis,  we  could  only  sa}^,  it 
was  simply  nature's  method  of  announcing,  in  her 


own  unmistakable  language,  a  half  discovered  scien- 
tific truth  of  the  greatest  magnitude  and  importance. 

If  only  there  had  been  among  us  at  that  time,  I 
hear  some  one  saying,  a  mind  fitted  for  the  elucida- 
tion of  all  the  hidden  problems  of  nature, — trained  in 
the  modem  methods  of  scientific  research,  what 
wonderful  results  might  have  been  at  once  realized ! 
Not  so. 

The  conditions  necessary  for  the  perfecting  of  such 
a  scientific  discovery  as  many  may  now  think  the 
facts  observed  plainly  led  up  to,  did  not  then  exist. 
A  new  and  unknown  contagious  and  infe6lious  dis- 
ease, that  appears  upon  the  continent  only  at  rare 
and  uncertain  intervals,  leaving  death  and  destru6lion 
in  its  path,  disappearing  when  its  work  is  ended,  as 
suddenly  as  it  came,  offers  few  opportunities  for  its 
continued  and  philosophical  investigation. 

Life  is  too  short, — and  the  successive  generations 
of  mankind  are  not  long  enough  for  the  study  and 
solution  of  all  the  mysteries  of  Nature. 

The  established  fa6l  of  recent  years,  that  the 
mercurial  chloride  is  probably  the  most  effedlive,  and 
certainly  the  safest  germicide  known,  had  of  course 
not  been  recognized  by  ba6leriologists  half  a  century 
ago,  for  as  yet  there  were  none, — but  the  wonderful 
success  of  the  purely  empyrical  treatment  of  Asiatic 
cholera  with  a  single  large  dose  of  this  mercurial, 
better  known  as  calomel,  served  as  the  text  and  basis 


for  numerous  discussions  by  our  two  friends,  while 
they  both  lived,  as  to  what  was  the  true  philosophy  of 
the  infinitely  great  results  of  so  simple  a  mode  of 
procedure. 

From  the  earliest  records  of  popular  beliefs,  down 
to  the  present  hour,  it  has  been  assumed  by  mankind, 
and  advocated  with  a  degree  of  obstinate  persistence 
equalled  only  by  the  intellectual  darkness  which 
prevailed,  that  all  foul  smelling  odors  which  could 
scarcely  be  inhaled  without  danger  of  suffocation, 
were  thereby  valuable  as  potent  disinfectants  of  dis- 
ease. Amulets  and  charms  of  disgusting  forms  and 
materials  were  relied  upon  for  protection  against  the 
infection  of  disease.  A  chemical  combination  of  an 
irrespirable  gas,  chlorine,  with  lime,  used  extensively 
in  the  arts,  has  been  supposed,  because  of  its  power- 
fully nauseous  odor,  to  be  not  only  a  deodorizer, 
overcoming  all  other  smells,  but  as  being  able  by 
virtue  of  its  irrespirable  odor  to  destroy  the  infectious 
nature  of  a  communicable  contagious  disease.  So  it 
has  come  about  that,  by  mistaking  the  use  of  lan- 
guage and  the  proper  definition  of  words,  the  chloride 
of  lime  has  acquired,  through  its  power  to  mask 
odors,  a  false  reputation  as  a  destroyer  of  the  infec- 
tion of  disease. 

Does  not  every  enlightened  student  of  nature  know 
that  the  only  real  disinfectants  are  cleanliness  and 

go 


ventilation,  or  the  destruction  by  fire  of  all  fomites  ? 
And  should  a  molecule  of  infectious  material  escape 
from  confinement,  that  it  is  caught  up  by  a  freely 
moving  atmosphere,  and  combining  with  equivalents 
of  oxygen  or  other  neutralizing  elements  of  the  air, 
enters  into  new  combinations  with  the  atmospheric 
constituents,  and  becomes,  instead  of  a  menace  to 
human  health  and  life,  a  natural  stimulus  to  every 
form  of  vegetable  and  animal  perfection  ? 


Although  a  quarter  of  a  century  has  passed  since 
the  inaugural  address  by  Doctor  Bronson,  as  President 
of  the  Connecticut  Medical  Society,  was  made,  cir- 
cumstances indicate  that  it  can  be  profitably  read  by 
the  present  generation. 

SCIENCK   AS    A    HELPKR  ;     INHKRITANCK    AS    A    HINDRANCE;  ; 
DEATH   AS   A   CONSERVATOR. 

The  Annual  Address  delivered  before  the  Convention,  May  25th,  1870, 

By  the  President  of  the  Society, 

HENRY   BRONSON,    M.D. 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen,  Members  of  the  Medical  Society  : 

Medicine  as  a  Science,  or  scientific  medicine,  has  been 
steadily,  or  with  slight  interruptions,  improving  since  the 
dawn  of  civilization,  and  during  the  present  century  has  made 
rapid  progress.  Facts  from  many  departments  of  inquiry  have 
been  collected  and  classified,  nature  has  been  interrogated  by 
experiment,  laws  have  been  ascertained  and  principles  settled. 
Hundreds  or  thousands  of  enthusiastic,  tireless  workers  of 
every  age  and  in  different  countries  have  devoted  their  strength 


and  lives  to  the  stud}-.  Whatever  energy,  patience  and  talent, 
aided  by  the  best  methods  and  fittest  appliances,  could  accom- 
plish, has  been  done. 

Anatomy  is  a  branch  of  medical  science  which  has  been 
prosecuted  with  complete  success,  and  so  far  as  it  relates  to  the 
human  subject  little  remains  to  be  known.  In  the  interesting 
department  of  Comparative  Anatomy,  however,  without  a 
knowledge  of  which  the  human  form  has  little  significance, 
there  is  yet  work  enough — enough  certainly  for  the  genera- 
tions of  this  century  and  the  next.  In  Microscopical  Anatomy, 
which  seeks  to  know  the  minute  structure  of  organisms,  won- 
derful conquests  have  been  made,  but  still  greater  marv-els  may 
yet  be  disclosed.  It  is  not  easy  to  assign  limits  to  that  which 
human  persistence,  skillful  manipulation  and  improved  instru- 
ments may  accomplish  in  this  particular  field  of  inquiry.  Nor 
has  Physiolog}',  the  science  of  normal  living  actions,  withheld 
its  contributions  to  scientific  medicine.  Almost  within  my  own 
memory,  it  has  come  out  of  the  nebulous  state,  and  from  an 
unpropitious  beginning  has  already  taken  a  high  rank.  Con- 
sidered in  its  wider  meaning  and  embracing  Comparative 
Physiology,  it  is  at  this  moment  one  of  the  most  pregnant  and 
hopeful  of  the  sciences,  giving  or  promising  important  aid  in 
the  solution  of  difiicult  problems.  Of  Botany,  another  of  the 
so-called  collateral  sciences,  embracing  within  its  scope  plants 
of  priceless  value  in  prescription,  I  need  only  speak  as  the 
chosen  pursuit  of  man^-  zealous  and  competent  men  whose 
labors  have  been  crowned  with  distinguished  success. 

Pre-eminent  among  the  medical  sciences  stands  Chemistry. 
It  has  been  cultivated  with  unintermitting  assiduitj-,  and  a 
courage  that  has  never  faltered.  The  highest  order  of  genius 
has  been  devoted  to  it,  and  extraordinarj-  results  have  been 
obtained.  It  has  contributed  largely  to  scientific  medicine, 
and  imposed  on  the  profession  obligations  which  can  neither 
be  forgotten  or  discharged.  Its  power  and  utilit}^  have  been 
displayed  in  the  analysis  of  drugs,  the  isolation  of  their  active 
principles,  and  the  modification  and  improvement  of  the  latter 
by  combination.     The   discovery    of  the   remarkable    class  of 


substances  known  as  the  alkaloids,  of  which  that  impatient 
and  revolutionary  agent,  nitrogen,  is  the  characteristic  ingre- 
dient, is  due  to  the  chemists.  A  large  proportion  of  our  active 
remedies  are  now  chemicals,  the  products  of  the  laboratory. 
The  copiousness  and  variety  of  our  Materia  Medica  as  compared 
with  that  of  our  fathers  must  be  ascribed  to  our  friends  of  the 
retort  and  test-tube. 

Nor  has  chemistry  been  content  with  these  outer,  material 
conquests.  Adventurous,  confident,  sometimes  audacious,  it 
has  essayed  to  explain  the  mysteries  of  the  inner,  organic 
world.  Denying  the  existence  of  a  distinctive  vital  principle  ; 
assuming  the  living  form  to  be  composed  of  chemical  materi- 
als, built  up,  endowed  and  preserved  by  simple  chemical  force, 
and  finally  destroyed  by  chemical  action,  it  has  attempted  to 
trace  the  steps  and  explain  the  cause  of  every  movement. 
Nor  have  its  promises  been  without  a  show  of  performance. 
In  pursuance  of  a  well-defined  purpose,  its  cultivators  have, 
with  unequaled  diligence  and  a  complete  mastery  of  science, 
sought  to  know  the  composition,  phenomena  and  laws  of 
organized  bodies.  Remarkable  results  have  followed.  The 
elementary  constituents  of  organic  matter  have  been  exactly 
determined.  The  atomic  constitution  of  several  of  its  simpler 
compounds  (those  chiefly  which  are  destitute  of  nitrogen  and 
incapable  of  life)  such  as  starch,  sugar,  fat,  gum,  has  been 
clearly  shown.  By  chemical  agency,  starch  is  easily  converted 
into  sugar,  and  urea  and  several  other  organic  bodies  formed 
from  inorganic  materials.  That  the  difficult  questions  presented 
might  be  satisfactorily  answered,  all  the  substances,  solids, 
fluids  and  gases,  which  are  taken  into  the  system  as  supplies, 
or  which  escape  from  it  as  detritus  or  refuse,  have  been  ana- 
lyzed and  weighed,  while  the  several  changes  wrought  during 
the  transit  have  been  carefully  noted.  According  to  the  liberal 
estimate  of  Professor  Draper,  a  man  of  ordinary  size  receives 
annually,  say,  eight  hundred  pounds,  avoirdupois,  of  dry  food, 
eight  hundred  pounds  of  oxygen,  and  fifteen  hundred  pounds 
of  water,  in  all  more  than  a  ton  and  a  half ;  and  if  his  weight 
be  stationarj^,  loses  by  the  alimentary  canal,  kidneys,  skin  and 


lungs,  in  the  form  of  non-assimilated  matters,  urea,  carbonic 
acid  and  water,  an  equal  amount.  Every  element  taken  from 
the  world  outside  is  restored  to  it.  The  organism  can  re- 
arrange atoms  or  molecules,  decompose,  recompose  and  reha- 
bilitate compound  bodies,  but  create  nothing,  destroy  nothing. 
Note  the  facts. 

A  plant  lives  on  inorganic  matter — water,  carbonic  acid  and 
ammonia  chiefl}- — heat  and  light  furnishing  the  extraneous 
force  required.  An  animal  receives  into  its  body  organic, 
highly  elaborated,  nutritive  substances — substances  surcharged 
with  chemical  force  loosely  combined  and  easily  appropriated — 
converts  them  first  into  plastic  material,  then  into  living  tissue, 
and  lastly  into  lifeless,  inorganic  matter  which,  spent  of  its  use- 
ful qualities,  is  cast  off.  By  the  last  conversion,  or  during  the 
descent  from  the  organic  to  the  inorganic  state,  a  vast  amount 
of  "stored  up  force"  is,  as  in  the  case  of  a  falling  body,  liber- 
ated, metamorphosed  and  utilized.  This,  like  that  generated 
by  the  gravitating  clock- weight  or  a  bent  spring,  is  employed 
to  work  the  machinery  of  life.  The  force  thus  used  manifests 
itself  as  muscular,  or  digestive,  or  hepatic,  or  nervous  force, 
etc.,  or  as  heat,  sensation,  emotion,  etc.  How  this  change 
happens — how  chemical  affinity  becomes  vital  power — we 
know  not.  Nor  do  we  know  how  this  same  affinity  is  converted 
into  heat  and  light  by  combustion,  or  into  electricity  bj'  the 
galvanic  apparatus.  We  understand,  however,  some  of  the 
conditions  which  are  necessar>\  That  oxj'gen  plays  an  im- 
portant part  in  all  these  processes  is  apparent.  Oxygen  is  a 
powerful  chemical  agent,  and  the  great  instrument  of  change  in 
the  natural  world,  pulling  down  the  forms  which  other  agencies 
build  up.  It  is  taken  into  the  system  in  enormous  quantitj', 
in  weight  equal  to  the  dry  food  received,  and  diffused  through- 
out all  the  tissues.  The  effect  of  a  substance  so  energetic,  let 
loose  in  such  abundance  among  the  reeking,  unstable  com- 
pounds of  the  body,  must  be  in  a  high  degree  subversive  in  its 
action,  unless  controlled  by  vital  power.  Thus  controlled — 
put  in  harness,  as  it  were — it  becomes  not  only  an  efficient 
worker,  but  an  obedient,  humble  servant.     Always  at  hand,  it 


in  some  way,  by  permission,  unites  with  the  carbon  contained 
in  the  food,  the  carbonic  acid  which  appears  in  the  expired 
air  furnishing  proof  of  the  union.  By  this  combination, 
heat,  or  its  probable  equivalent  in  other  forces,  is  constantly 
evolved.  The  heat  increases  mobility,  facilitates  change  and 
keeps  the  body  warm  ;  the  other  forces  are  mechanical  and 
vital — muscular,  digestive,  cerebral,  etc.  ' '  Whatever  amount 
ot  power  an  organism  expends  in  any  shape  is  the  correlate  and 
equivalent  of  a  power  that  was  taken  into  it  from  without." 
[See  Spencer's  Principles  of  Biology.]  It  is  contended  that  the 
carbon  consumed  undergoes  a  true  combustion.  The  whole 
of  the  "  stored  up  "  force  disengaged  is  just  equal  to  that 
which  is  given  out  when  an  equal  amount  of  carbon  is 
"burned,"  whether  within  or  without  the  body.  According 
to  the  theory,  this  combustive  process  disintegrates  and 
destroys  portions  of  vital  substance,  solid  or  fluid  ;  organic 
matter  runs  down  :  parts  die  and  are  rejected  that  the  remain- 
ing whole  may  live.  The  explanation  is  ingenious  and  plaus- 
ible in  a  high  degree. 

The  vital  structure  is  an  apparatus  so  contrived  and  equipped 
as  to  convert  inorganic  or  dead  organic  into  living  matter, 
physical  into  vital  force.  It  effects  this  by  means  of  an  inher- 
ent, special  endowment.  This  endowment  is  a  force,  sui 
generis,  wholly  distinct  from  those  which  govern  inanimate 
matter — correlated  with  them  if  you  please,  but  as  distinct 
from  them  as  they  are  from  each  other.  Of  its  primal  source 
we  are  wholly  ignorant  ;  but  that  it  made  its  appearance  subse- 
quently to  the  material  forces,  geological  facts  well  nigh 
prove.  Unlike  the  latter,  it  is  not  necessary  to  the  existence  of 
matter.  As  we  know  it,  this  force  always  has  its  beginning  in 
a  pre-existing  organism,  but  whether  or  not  a  creative  act 
introduced  it  in  the  first  instance,  science  does  not  inform  us. 
In  our  experience,  it  is  associated  exclusively  with  an  organ- 
ized system,  in  connection  with  which  it  multiplies,  develops 
and  perpetuates  itself.  No  known  arrangement  of  material 
agencies,  no  artificial  combination  of  appliances,  has  yet  been 
able  to  evoke  it  ;  at  least,  this  is  my  belief.     A  living  organ- 


ism  must  be  provided  before  the  first  or  initial  step  can  be 
taken.  Generation  does  not  originate  but  onl)^  continues 
existence.  Chemistry  has  wrought  marvels,  but  up  to  this 
time  has  not  endowed  with  life  a  single  particle  of  matter.  I 
may  be  mistaken,  but  these  are  my  convictions  after  having 
examined  the  facts.  I  do  not  claim  that  ' '  spontaneous  gene- 
ration," so  called,  is  impossible,  but  that  it  has  not  been 
proved. 

To  say  that  vital  force  is  nothing  more  than  chemical  force 
slightly  disguised,  as  those  chemists  whose  minds  have  been 
too  exclusively  occupied  by  their  own  science  often  do,  is  with- 
out warrant,  and  an  abuse  of  language.  With  as  much  pro- 
priety might  it  be  claimed  that  the  force  expended  in  the 
formation  of  a  crystal  is  vital  force.  The  two  are  easily  dis- 
tinguished. Each  has  its  appointed  sphere,  and  acts  in  its  own 
way  ;  each  produces  compounds  and  phenomena  and  groupings 
of  the  latter  which  are  peculiar  and  specific.  Nor  do  they  exer- 
cise a  divided  sway.  In  its  own  proper  field  of  action,  each 
rules  supreme  so  long  as  it  rules  at  all.  In  the  cases  in  which 
one  disappears,  and  the  other  is  installed  in  its  place,  there  is 
no  union  or  blending,  but  a  true  metamorphosis  and  conversion. 
Why  overlook  all  these  and  many  other  proofs  of  a  diverse 
nature  ?  Why  contend  that  one  does  the  work  of  both,  or 
that  the  other  has  no  existence  ?  The  proficient  in  chemistry 
will  not  permit  the  physiologist  to  enter  his  laboratory,  and  to 
insist  without  protest  that  the  force  which  there  rules  is  not 
chemical,  but  vital — that  the  chemical  principle,  so-called,  is  a 
myth,  or  plan's  a  secondar}^  and  subordinate  part  in  every  case, 
and  that  vitalit}^  acting  under  new  conditions  is  the  true  cause 
of  every  phenomenon.  Chemists  who  are  jealous  of  their  own 
rights  should  not  claim  for  themselves  what  they  are  unwilling 
to  yield  to  others. 

Though  the  collateral  sciences  have  sometimes  suffered  from 
misdirected  labor,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  they  have  reared 
vast  and  solid  structures  of  natural  truth.  In  the  matter  of 
work,  they  have  done  their  part,  but  has  practical  medicine 
been   profited   to   the  extent  expected  ?     Has  the  latter,  as  a 


96 


general  rule,  been  able  to  appropriate  and  utilize  the  important 
facts  which  have  been  placed  within  its  reach  ?  With  all  our 
new  acquisitions,  can  we  prolong  life,  cut  short  disease,  or 
restore  health  with  any  certainty  ?  Are  our  methods  of  cure 
as  much  superior  to  those  of  our  fathers  as  our  science  is  more 
complete  ?  Has  the  healing  art  kept  pace  with  the  other  arts 
which  owe  their  advanced  position  to  modern  discovery  ?  To 
all  these  questions — I  say  it  with  sorrow,  not  with  shame — a 
negative  answer  must  be  returned.  Too  often  have  we  been 
unable  to  make  our  greater  knowledge  contribute  in  any  con- 
siderable degree  to  our  resources,  or  indeed  to  connect  it  with 
the  ends  for  which  we  labor.  Hence  there  is  often  a  broad  gulf 
between  our  science  and  our  practice.  Anatomj^  Physiology, 
Microscopy,  Chemistry,  etc.,  do  not  qualify  us  to  foretell  with- 
out error  the  course  of  events  in  the  interior  of  the  system, 
especially  when  the  natural  actions  have  been  suspended  or 
perverted  by  disease.  Not  knowing  what  events  may  turn  up, 
we  can  make  no  adequade  provision  against  impending  dan- 
gers. Often  they  come  upon  us  suddenly  and  unexpectedly 
when  no  preparation  was  possible.  The  thick  darkness  which 
hangs  over  the  future  of  us  all,  no  mortal  eye,  no  human 
sagacity,  has  3^et  penetrated.  Sometimes  a  man  drops  dead  in 
the  street  when  no  one  knew  he  was  ill,  and  when  the  scalpel 
makes  no  important  disclosure.  Another  sinks  rapidly  from  a 
slight  injury  or  surgical  operation,  or  other  seemingly  insuf- 
ficient cause.  These  accidents,  so-called,  or  special  provi- 
dences, as  many  suppose,  do  not  occur  in  the  inorganic  world. 
The  physicist  often  knows  as  much  of  the  future  as  the  past. 
Foreseeing  what  will  happen,  he  can  anticipate  and  forestall 
events.  The  chemist  will  tell  you  distinctly  how  a  familiar 
substance  will  behave  when  submitted  to  experiment — carbon- 
ate of  lime  for  instance,  when  placed  in  dilute  sulphuric  acid. 
Consequently,  he  can  provide  without  accident  for  whatever 
may  come.  Taking  a  bold  stand,  he  can  not  only  predict  con- 
fidently, but  bring  prophecy  to  pass. 

It  is  otherwise  with  the  physician.     He  hesitates,  and  if  he 
is  wise  speaks  cautiously,  trembling  for  results.    However  well 


he  may  know  a  family  of  children,  he  cannot  tell  how  they 
will  be  affected  by  exposure  to  scarlet  fever,  what  course  the 
disease  will  take,  how  opium,  calomel  or  capsicum  may  influ- 
ence its  progress,  or  what  the  sequels  may  be  in  each  case. 
The  same  remedy,  given  apparently  under  the  same  circum- 
stances, will  not  always  produce  the  same  effects.  Embar- 
rassed with  doubt,  he  cannot  prescribe  without  anxiet)'  for 
severe  sickness,  not  knowing  what  a  da)'  or  an  hour  may  bring 
forth.  If  prudent,  he  temporizes  and  palliates  till  the  sk^' 
clears  up  ;  waits  for  developments,  watches  symptoms  and 
proceeds  warily,  feeling  that  his  feet  are  on  slippery  ground. 
If  he  give  medicine,  his  efforts  are  at  first  tentative.  It  is  not 
till  the  disease  assumes  a  regular  type — till  life  returns  to 
familiar  channels,  and  the  end  can  be  seen — that  his  step 
becomes  assured.  Suppose  in  a  critical  case  he  pursue  a 
bolder  course,  and  attempt  to  arrest  morbid  action  by  strong 
practice.  Whilst  he  waits  with  painful  solicitude  for  suitable 
effects,  straining  his  eyes  to  catch  the  faintest  glimpse  of  a 
coming  change,  he  cannot  but  notice  that  events  come  and  go 
at  their  own  sweet  will,  or  are  guided  by  a  hand  stronger  than 
his.  Diml)'  discerned  behind  the  curtain,  there  sits  a  dreaded, 
unrelenting,  mysterious  power  which  resists  his  efforts  and 
thwarts  his  aims.  Against  such  odds,  is  it  strange  that  the 
physician  gives  up  the  contest,  or  seeks  refuge  in  what  is 
termed  the  expectant  method — a  method  which  follows  hope- 
fully and  submissively  instead  of  taking  the  lead  and  cleaving 
a  way  for  escape  ?  It  is  certain  that  the  practitioner  can 
sometimes  best  serve  the  sick  by  curbing  his  impatience,  and 
declining  to  interfere.  Pursuing  this  course,  he  gives  his  atten- 
tion to  minor  points,  and  waits  for  new  revelations,  trusting 
for  safety  to  movements  which  he  does  not  comprehend,  and 
which  he  can  neither  initiate  or  delay.  I  know  not  a  more 
painful  situation,  or  one  better  calculated  to  humble  a  proud, 
self-suflBcient  man  than  that  of  the  trusted  medical  adviser 
who,  comprehending  the  danger,  is  obliged  to  sit  by  the 
bedside  of  sickness,  the  observed  of  all,  without  lifting  a 
finger. 


98 


The  limited  influence  of  our  art — its  complete  subordina- 
tion to  a  higher  law — is  well  illustrated  by  the  uniformity 
which  characterizes  sickness  and  death.  Not  only  do  all  men 
die,  but  each  dies  of  some  particular  disease  which  we  are 
taught  to  resist,  and  which  the  world  thinks  we  ought  to  cure. 
The  causes  of  mortalit}^  act  with  so  much  regularity  that  the 
rate  of  the  latter  may  be  precisely  known.  On  the  fact  that 
out  of  a  thousand  persons  of  a  given  age,  a  certain  number 
will  die  annually,  in  spite  of  the  healing  art,  the  system  of 
life  insurance  is  founded.  That  the  risk  may  be  accurately 
computed  is  proved  by  the  practice  of  business  men  who  issue 
life-policies  at  fixed  prices,  staking  their  dollars  on  the  result. 
They  do  not  find  their  calculations  overturned  by  supposed 
improvements  in  medicine.  Or,  if  we  take  a  particular  disease 
indigenous  to  a  country,  the  deaths  from  it  will  be  found  to 
bear  a  nearly  uniform  ratio  to  the  deaths  from  all  diseases.  For 
consumption,  this  ratio  in  Connecticut  is  about  one  to  six  and 
a  third.  But  the  death  rate  among  a  people  does  not  seem  to 
be  dependent  on  any  of  the  usual  forms  of  sickness.  Were 
phthisis,  typhoid  fever,  dysentery,  cholera  infantum,  etc.,  to 
become  wholly  extincft,  I  suppose  that  new  disorders  equally 
destructive  to  the  same  classes  as  nearly  the  same  age  would 
be  introduced.  A  sweeping  epidemic  which  proves  fatal  to 
large  numbers  is  usually  followed  by  unwonted  health.  It 
weeds  out  the  vitally  infirm,  killing  off  those  who  would 
soon  have  perished  from  other  causes.  The  decreased  mor- 
tality which  is  the  immediate  result  makes  up  for  the  previous 
increase,  leaving  the  rate  for  the  whole  period  unaflfedled. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  our  insufi&ciency  as  physicians  and 
frequent  defeat  are  due  to  any  lack  of  ability,  or  courage,  or 
persistence  in  the  profession.  We  have  had  in  our  ranks  our 
full  proportion  of  eminent  men — men  of  profound  judgment 
and  gifted  intelledl.  Trained  to  their  vocation,  they  are  keen 
observers  and  cautious  reasoners.  No  class  of  workers  has 
surpassed  them  in  industry,  zeal  and  self-sacrifice.  The  phe- 
nomena of  disease,  its  origin,  history,  charadleristics,  compli- 
cations and  results  have  been  studied  with  determined  resolu- 


tion.  Remedies  have  been  sought  the  world  over,  and  their 
properties  and  effe(5ls  carefully  examined  ;  while  skillful 
therapeutists  have  spent  their  lives  in  the  endeavor  to  apply 
them  to  pradlice.  Facts,  so-called,  have  been  accumulated  in 
bewildering  profusion,  and  books  written  nearly  enough  to 
freight  a  planet. 

All  these  things  well  considered  lead  to  the  conclusion  that 
a  wrong  estimate  has  been  put  upon  the  difficulties  of  our  art. 
These  difficulties  are  extraordinary  in  kind  and  degree,  and 
wholl}^  different  from  those  met  with  in  the  ph3^sical  world. 
For  them  and  their  invincible  charadler,  our  profession  is  ,not 
responsible.  The  nature  of  the  obstacles  which  confront  us  at 
every  step  not  onl}^  account  for  our  short-comings,  bnt  vindi- 
cate us  fully.  Though  often  overmatched,  considering  the 
heavy  load  which  has  been  placed  upon  us,  we  need  not  be 
ashamed.  This  conceded,  let  us  no  longer  foster  delusion, 
hoping  for  the  impossible,  but  endeavor  to  ascertain  what  are 
the  hindrances  to  the  healing  art — what  their  nature — what 
their  causes  and  extent  ?  What  are  the  limits  of  our  power  to 
cure,  and  why  are  we  thus  limited  ?  What  is  the  law  which 
interposes  when  more  is  attempted  than  can  be  accomplished  ? 
I  may  not  be  able  to  reply  to  all  these  questions,  but  I  can 
answer  some,  and  give  reasons,  perhaps,  for  not  answering 
others. 

Leaving  out  of  the  account  some  of  the  simplest  organisms, 
animal  life  in  the  individual  begins  with  the  fertilized  ovum, 
or  rather  with  the  primitive  or  embryo-cell  which  the  latter 
incloses.  This  cell,  the  producft  of  two  other  cells  called 
sexual,  at  first  a  mere  speck  of  semi-fluid,  albuminous  matter, 
without  discernable  structure,  has  at  the  start  but  a  single 
facult}',  that  of  drawing  to  itself  and  appropriating  nutritive 
matter,  and  the  force  required  for  transmutation,  etc.  Bj'- 
means  of  additions  thus  made,  it  contrives  to  gain  in  size  and 
strength,  or  to  grow.  Simultaneously  with  this  increase,  and 
keeping  pace  with  it,  there  is  differentiation,  the  parts  becom- 
ing unlike.  To  the  eye,  the  first  change  is  indicated  bj"  the 
"segmentation    of  the  yolk."     Then  comes  the   "mulberry 


mass,"  then  the  "  blastodermic  membrane,"  then  the  "primi- 
tive trace,"  then  the  dim  outline  of  central  organs,  and  so  on, 
the  process  up  to  a  certain  point  being  the  same  in  all  animals. 
The  chara(5ters  which  distinguish  the  class,  order,  genus  and 
species  appear  in  regular  succession.  Alwaj^s  impelled  by  out- 
side influences,  the  organism  is  forever  in  a  state  of  transition, 
passing  from  one  stage  to  another.  Originally  simple  in  form, 
homogeneous  in  strudlure,  and  indefinite  in  its  chara(?ters,  it 
becomes  daily  or  hourly  more  complex,  more  heterogeneous, 
more  definite.  Out  of  the  confusion  formed  by  continuous 
integration  and  transformation,  the  body  of  the  young  animal 
at  length  emerges.  Organs,  fun(5lions  and  faculties  are 
unfolded  and  elaborated,  one  after  another,  till  the  work  is 
complete.  This  proceeding  from  the  general  to  the  special, 
from  a  lower  to  a  higher  sphere,  through  successive  differen- 
tiations, is  called  Development  or  Evolution.  This  continues 
till  the  prescribed  limit  of  perfecftion  has  been  reached,  when  a 
retrograde  movement,  not  over  the  line  of  advancement  but 
toward  weakness  and  decay,  commences.  This  downward 
plunge  does  not  seem  to  be  caused,  as  the  chemists  suppose,  by 
the  unresisted  action  of  chemical  forces.  The  end  is  reached 
through  differentiations  as  regular  and  distindtive  as  those 
which  marked  the  ascent,  and  wholly  unlike  anything  which 
unassisted  chemistry  can  produce.  The  organism  during  the 
whole  period  of  its  fall  is  adtive,  not  passive.  Nor  does  the 
body  wear  ovi\.,  as  popular  opinion  supposes.  If  wear,  so-called, 
is  to  be  measured  by  waste,  then  the  greater  it  is  the  more 
vigorous  the  fundtions,  and  vice  versa.  lyife,  in  its  normal 
state,  is  in  truth  strong  and  acftive  in  proportion  to  the  expen- 
diture, and  to  a  large  extent  in  consequence  of  it.  Properly 
speaking,  there  is  no  wear  in  the  working  of  life's  machinery, 
and  consequently  no  loss  by  attrition.  The  duration  of  indi- 
vidual existence  is  determined  by  vital,  not  chemical  or 
mechanical  laws.  Immediately,  if  I  mistake  not,  it  depends 
on  the  limitation  which  nature  has  imposed  on  the  power  of 
cell-multiplication,  by  which  repairs  are  e£fe(fted  and  the  tissues 
renovated.     This  power,  renewed,  rejuvenated  and  refreshed 


by  the  s^enerative  adl,  is  always  energetic  till  maturity  is 
reached,  when,  at  the  very  point  of  greatest  perfedlion,  and 
when  decay  seemed  most  remote,  it  begins  to  show  weakness 
which  gradually  increases  till  cell-genesis  and  the  life  which 
depends  on  it  becomes  precarious  and  finally  impossible. 

That  we  may  better  understand  the  nature  of  development, 
I  will  go  back  to  the  facfls  which  stand  at  the  head  of  the 
developmental  series.  However  a  species  may  have  originated, 
whether  it  began  life  as  a  single  cell  or  as  a  more  complex 
structure,  this  primitive  organism,  once  in  existence,  would  be 
adled  on  and  modified — its  equilibrium  disturbed — by  environ- 
ing influences.  Having,  by  the  supposition,  no  hereditary 
bias,  and  restricted  only  by  intrinsic  causes  and  its  own  essen- 
tial nature,  it  would  of  necessity  be  impelled  in  the  direction 
given  by  these  influences,  or  in  the  line,  if  you  please,  of  least 
resistance.  These  outer  agencies — air,  light,  heat,  moisture, 
food,  etc.,  adling  singly  or  jointly,  would  cause  new  molecular 
arrangements  or  inner  change,  and  with  change  would  come 
differentiation,  the  first  step  of  development.  A  slight  change 
in  the  environment  (which  is  alwaj^s  var\'ing)  would  cause 
further  change  in  the  organism.  Thus  the  second  step  would 
be  taken.  Continued  change  would  by  the  same  rule  produce 
continued  differentiation,  ending,  under  the  guidance  of  the 
constructive  principle,  in  complete  development.  In  this 
manner  the  living  form  is  pressed  forward,  and  at  the  same 
time  molded  and  fashioned  bj^  external  influences,  its  success- 
ive conditions  or  history  representing  and  refledling  the  latter. 
I  shall  not  follow  up  this  idea  ;  but  the  efiecft  of  these  reac- 
tionary movements  and  the  developmental  changes  which 
follow  is  to  bring  life  into  greater  harmony  with  the  world 
outside.  This  harmony — in  progressive  races  more  complete 
in  each  succeeding  generation — is  made  possible  by  the  yield- 
ing, obsequious  charadter  of  the  nascent  organism.  When  the 
latter  becomes  unyielding — rigid,  say,  from  age — or  when  its 
answering  adlions  are  irregular  and  spasmodic,  as  in  disease, 
the  power  of  adjustment  is  lost,  harmon}'  ceases,  and  death 
must  soon  follow.     This  correspondence  between  the  organs 


and  fundtions  and  surrounding  agents,  so  conspicuous  in 
nature,  and  so  necessary  to  animal  and  vegetal  existence,  is 
what  is  called  adaptation. 

But  that  which  is  most  nearly  related  to  my  present  purpose 
is  the  fa(5l  that  modifications  of  strudlure,  peculiarities  of  form, 
and  bodily  qualities  of  whatever  kind  and  however  produced, 
re-appear  in  the  offspring.  The  first  pair,  having  no  inheri- 
tance, would  bequeath  only  their  united  personal  organizations 
as  it  existed  at  the  time  of  conception.  The  second  genera- 
tion, commencing  life  with  an  hereditary  bias,  would  transmit 
this  together  with  the  modifications  which  personal  causes  had 
produced.  The  third  and  subsequent  generations  would  follow 
the  example  of  the  second,  each  handing  down  whatever  had 
been  received,  with  the  alterations  and  additions  which  itself 
had  supplied.  Thus  an  individual  is  in  strudlure  and  fundlion 
but  the  recapitulation  of  all  that  has  gone  before — an  abridge- 
ment of  his  ancestry  and  of  himself,  that  is  of  his  own  history. 
Uniformity  in  the  environment  adling  upon  successive  genera- 
tions would  insure  uniformity  of  organization,  giving  charac- 
ters common  to  the  race,  and  permanent  in  proportion  to  their 
antiquity.  During  the  long  life  of  a  species,  embracing 
hundreds  or  thousands  of  centuries,  these  chara(fters  become, 
as  it  were,  immutable.  On  the  other  hand,  variableness  in  the 
outer  world  is  the  source  of  inconstancy  in  the  inner.  Incon- 
stant chara(5ters  are  those  which  distinguish  the  varieties  of  a 
species  or  sub-species.  As  a  general  rule  they  have  a  feeble 
hold  of  the  organism,  have  a  recent  origin,  and  are  easily 
efiaced.  Fanciers  take  advantage  of  this  fadl  when  they  would 
introduce  a  new  breed. 

Not  only  is  the  organization  bequeathed,  but  the  order  of 
events  and  the  time  occupied  by  each  of  the  several  series  are 
transmitted,  the  parental  type  being  preserved.  The  family 
pattern,  whatever  it  may  be,  is  faithfully  copied,  and  all  its 
modifications  successively  adopted.  In  virtue  of  its  inherited 
endowment,  the  embryo-cell  runs  a  definite  career,  definite  in 
its  stages  and  duration,  and  definite  in  every  one  of  its  charac- 
teristics.    In  each  step  of  its  progress  it  is  under  constraint — 


hemmed  in  by  limits,  and  bound  down  by  forms  which  it 
cannot  break  over.  Always  starting  from  the  same  point,  it  is 
driven  forward  helplessl)^  in  the  course  marked  out  for  it ; 
undergoes  all  the  changes  and  transformations  peculiar  to  its 
kind,  and  does  not  fail  to  arrive  at  the  different  stages  ' '  on 
time."  An  unseen  influence  guides  it  ;  a  law  which  no 
scalpel  or  microscope  or  other  appliance  can  reveal,  presides 
over  it.  External  violence  or  internal  defedts  may  cut  short 
its  course,  but  no  cause  consistent  with  healthy  movement  can 
materially  change  its  direction  or  hinder  its  progress.  Nor 
can  the  order  fixed  by  heritage  be  reversed.  Maturity  is 
reached  by  innumerable  successive  differentiations,  every  one 
of  which  is  made  possible  by  some  preceding  differentiation. 

Strudlure  carries  wdth  it  fundlion,  and  all  the  qualities 
which  appertain  to  a  living  organism.  If  the  former  be  inher- 
ited, so  are  the  latter.  Each  of  the  organs  and  faculties 
exhibits  the  family  likeness,  follows  in  the  footsteps  of  its 
predecessors,  and  a<5ls  as  it  has  been  accustomed  to  time  out  of 
mind,  without  much  reference  to  present  ownership.  In  truth, 
faculties  are  handed  down  entire  and  without  a  break  from  one 
generation  to  another.  Though  intermitting  in  adlivity,  as  in 
the  sleeping  and  embr3^onic  states,  stridlly  speaking  they  never 
die.  Appetites,  propensities,  instin(5ls,  aptitudes,  tendencies, 
modes  of  thinking  and  habits  of  action,  all  live  in  the  oflspring. 
Not  only  are  the  prime  fadts  of  individual  life  determined  by 
descent,  but  minor  events,  including  those  dependent  proxi- 
mately on  the  will,  have  to  a  large  extent  the  same  origin. 
Travelers  speak  of  certain  wild  birds  which,  allowing  them- 
selves to  be  approached  till  experience  has  taught  the  danger, 
bear  offspring  which,  untaught,  fl}^  aw-ay  alarmed  at  the  sight 
of  man.  According  to  the  Westminster  Review,  referred  to  by 
Dr.  Elam,  a  dog  taught  to  beg  bore  a  puppy  which,  though 
taken  from  its  mother  at  six  weeks,  spontaneously  took  to 
begging  at  the  end  of  seven  or  eight  months.  One  day  it  was 
found  before  a  rabbit  hutch  "begging"  for  the  rabbits.  The 
playful  ad;s  of  the  kitten  are  not  those  of  the  mother  w^hen 
grown  up,  but  of  the  mother  in  its  kittenhood,  this  fadt 
proving  that  they  are  not  imitative  but  hereditary. 


In  essential  points,  one's  history  is  written  in  the  embryo- 
cell  from  which  he  springs.  There  will  be  found  the  causes  of 
the  good  and  evil  which  attend  him.  There  are  planted  the 
seeds  of  disease  and  decay.  If  health  and  long  life  await  him, 
there  will  be  found  the  reason  for  them.  If  the  embryo-form 
be  imperfect  or  poorly  endowed,  a  sickly  life  and  early  death 
may  be  expected.  In  no  event  can  the  stream  be  purer  than 
the  fountain.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  a  man's  personal 
environment  and  his  own  spontaneity  can  have  no  e£fec?t  on  his 
destiny,  but  that  he  starts  with  specific  tendencies,  a  bias,  a 
pressure  in  the  rear  which  will  usually  control  the  result.  If 
he  begins  life  with  broken  machinery  or  a  constitution  funda- 
mentally imperfect,  the  defecfts  can  never  be  repaired.  In  a 
case  of  this  kind,  development  may  be  arrested  at  any  time, 
slight  accidents  will  produce  extraordinary  eflFe(5ts,  certain 
functions  will  be  discharged  with  difficulty,  and  fatal  disease 
will  appear  prematurely,  perhaps  suddenly.  Complaints  which 
are  not  commonly  hazardous,  like  measles,  whooping  cough, 
mumps,  etc.,  may  prove  mortal.  If  there  be  a  particular  family 
taint  or  tendency,  tuberculous,  cancerous,  rheumatic,  anthritic, 
maniacal,  epileptic,  apopledlic,  calculous,  etc.,  the  appropriate 
symptoms  will  probably  show  themselves  in  due  time,  and  at 
about  the  same  age  as  in  the  parent.*  Sometimes  all  the  issue 
of  the  same  pair  will  be  cut  off  in  infancy  by  hydrocephalus 
or  convulsions,  or  soon  after  puberty  by  consumption. 

*  For  the  unwelcome  ills  which  come  upon  us,  we  are  prone  to  look 
exclusively  to  outside  influences — heat,  cold,  dampness,  changes  in  the 
weather,  errors  of  diet,  poisons  in  the  air,  or  in  our  food  and  drink,  etc., 
and  to  forget  the  causes  which  are  wrapped  up  in  our  own  bodies. 
Because  a  chill  or  sense  of  chilliness  marks  the  access  of  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  maladies  which  afflicS;  humanity,  the  mistaken  masses  and 
some  poor  phj-sicians  suppose  that  clean,  cool,  fresh  air  is  the  great  enemy 
of  the  race,  and  that  "colds,"  so-called,  lay  the  foundations  for  most  of 
our  diseases.  It  is  well  to  provide,  as  in  most  cases  we  may,  for  the 
substantial  dangers  which  surround  us,  but  not  wise  to  mistake  for  them 
those  ever-present  evils  which  are  connected  with  a  crippled  organization 
—evils  which  are  congenital  and  hereditary,  against  which  no  adequate 
provision  can  be  made. 


Now  here  lie  the  difficulties  which  beset  the  physician. 
Nearly  all  the  diseases  he  is  called  on  to  treat  are,  more  or  less, 
openly  or  otherwise,  hereditary.  Even  those  which  are  appar- 
ently due  to  personal  causes  owe  their  peculiar  charadteristics 
and  perverseness  to  parentage.  Death  itself  is  a  heritage. 
Not  only  that,  but  the  time  of  its  occurrence  is  fixed  approxi- 
mately by  descent.  With  the  most  perfedt  organization,  and 
under  the  most  favorable  circumstances,  a  man  loses  his  vigor 
at  a  certain  age,  grows  more  and  more  feeble,  and  dies  when 
his  original  stock  of  vitality  is  exhausted.  To  appearance  he 
is  destroyed  by  some  familiar  complaint,  but  really  by  a  cause 
which  lies  far  deeper — a  cause  which  has  its  roots  in  the 
remote  past.  He  has  run  the  career  of  his  race  ;  has  reached 
the  ancestral  limit,  and  escapes  by  the  avenue  which  is  most 
convenient  or  accessible.  If  that  had  been  closed,  another 
would  have  been  found.  The  particular  disease  is  but  the 
transient  form  which  the  departing  life  assumes,  and  to  expedt 
to  cure  it,  however  mild  it  may  at  first  appear,  is  not  reason- 
able. Medicine  in  such  cases  may  not  be  useless,  but  strong 
drugs  are  out  of  place.  Other  disorders  occurring  in  early  or 
middle  life,  and  due  to  hereditary  faults,  are  often  to  be 
regarded  more  as  evidence  that  our  5'ears  have  been  numbered 
and  will  ere  long  expire,  than  as  temporarj'  perturbations  to  be 
removed.  In  these  instances,  were  it  possible  in  appearance 
to  restore  health,  our  patients  would  soon  die  of  other  and 
per\^erser  maladies,  and  we  might  lose  the  credit  won  in  pre- 
vious illnesses.  There  are  ph5'-sicians  in  pradlice  who,  if  their 
word  must  be  taken,  "never  lost  a  case  when  called  in 
season."  They  are  knaves  and  quacks,  and  deserve  our  con- 
tempt as  deceivers,  no  matter  what  their  diplomas  ma}'  say  in 
Latin.  All  our  patients,  however  adroitly  managed,  will  die 
sooner  or  later,  either  under  our  treatment  or  that  of  others 
perhaps  equally  skillful.  If  given  to  vaunting,  we  may 
promise  to  cure  every  disease  but  the  last.  Further  than  this 
we  cannot  safely  go  ;  more  than  this  our  friends  cannot  reas- 
onably ask.  As  our  power  to  heal  is  limited,  so  is  our  power 
to  slay.  Men  sick  before  their  time  will  usually  get  well 
under  almost  any  treatment,  the  worst  included. 


In  one  point  of  view,  it  may  be  considered  fortunate  that  we 
know  no  more  of  the  real  significance  of  our  infirmities — no 
more  of  the  prescribed  length  of  our  days,  and  the  connedlion 
which  impending  diseases  have  with  our  final  doom.  Perfedl 
knowledge  might  extinguish  hope  so  necessary  to  our  comfort, 
discourage  proper  effort,  and  give  rise  to  self- destroying 
despair.  Much  can  be  done  by  suitable  medication  to  remove 
irritation,  assuage  pain,  encourage  sleep,  and  promote  the  gen- 
eral good,  even  when  recovery  is  impossible.  In  all  these 
cases,  an  intelligent,  truthful  physician  is  needed  in  the  sick- 
room— needed  to  keep  imposters  out,  if  for  nothing  else. 

Purposely  in  my  preceding  remarks  have  I  omitted  to  notice 
certain  apparent  irregularities  in  the  law  of  descent.  Those 
permanent  and  essential  characters  which  distinguish  natural 
classes,  orders,  genera  and  species  are  transmitted  infallibly 
and  entire  ;  but  the  fadl  is  sometimes  otherwise  with  the  quali- 
ties which  mark  the  variety.  The  latter  are  produced  by 
temporary  causes  and,  as  already  suggested,  are  unstable, 
superficial  and  uncertain.  They  make  one  individual  to  differ 
from  another,  and  are  personal  in  their  nature.  To  this  group 
belong  all  those  bodily  imperfedtions  and  tendencies  which 
may  by  any  means  be  eliminated.  In  these  personal  and  com- 
monly transient  peculiarities,  one  is  more  likely  to  resemble 
parents  than  grandparents  or  remoter  kindred,  but  the  reverse 
is  occasionally  true,  the  result  being  determined  by  defledting 
influences.  A  peculiar  conformation  or  infirmity  which  has 
once  appeared  in  a  family,  and  which  seemed  forever  lost,  may 
reappear  after  a  long  interval.  Thus  a  person  may  receive  and 
transmit  what  he  did  not  seemingly  possess.  Some  of  these 
cases  of  ' '  reversion  ' '  — cases  in  which  individuals  resume 
ancestral  types — are  explained  by  supposing  that  the  family 
mark,  whatever  it  may  be,  remains  latent  till  called  forth  by 
the  exciting  causes  which  are  necessary  to  convert  fundlional 
tendency  into  fundtional  activity,  or  say,  predisposition  into 
disease.  In  other  instances,  however,  this  explanation  may 
not  apply,  as  when  a  malformation  or  a  supernumerary  mem- 
ber is  withheld  from  the  children,  but  appears  in  the  grand- 


children,  etc.  Irregularities  of  this  and  other  kinds  are  doubt- 
less connedled  with  the  fadl  that  onlj'  one  of  the  progenitors 
is,  as  a  common  thing,  abnormally  formed.  The  father  may- 
determine  the  organization  of  the  first  generation,  the  mother 
of  the  second,  and  vice  versa,  the  result  depending,  often  in  an 
unknown  way,  on  the  foreign  blood  which  marriage  has  intro- 
duced. However  frequent  these  divergences  from  the  usual 
order,  and  however  difficult  it  ma}^  be  to  interpret  them,  the 
general  law,  in  conformity  to  which  organic  peculiarities  are 
transmitted,  is  not  annulled.  I  have  not  room  to  say  more  on 
this  interesting  branch  of  m)^  subjedt. 

Though  those  alterations  of  strudlure  and  perversions  of 
function  growing  out  of  our  limited  career,  or  which  have 
been  fixed  in  the  organization  by  heritage  (producing  diseases 
in  their  nature  critical,)  are  beyond  the  reach  of  medicine, 
there  are  many  disorders  of  a  milder  type,  the  result  of  recent, 
mostly  personal  causes,  which  are  more  tradtable.  These  may 
be  relieved  by  appropriate  medical  treatment,*  aided  b)^  suit- 
able regimen  ;  but  as  a  general  rule,  a  permanent  cure  cannot 
be  expedled  while  the  causes  are  in  operation.  These  causes, 
often  social,  sometimes  endemic  or  climatic,  are  all  those 
which  adl  detrimentally  on  the  individual,  lowering  the  tone 
of  the  system,  and  contaminating  the  sources  of  vitality. 
Often  they  may  be  removed  by  changes  in  the  environment — 
sometimes  by  the  scavenger  alone — and  their  effedts  counter- 
a<5ted  by  medicine.  On  the  subjed;  of  hygiene,  the  intelli- 
gent physician  can  speak  with  authority,  and  make  his  influ- 
ence felt.  He  should  take  the  lead  in  the  great  work  of 
purification  and  reformation,  strengthening  the  hands  of  the 
civil  authorities,  sewerage  committees,  temperance  advocates 
and  moral  reformers. 

*  Medicines  are  among  the  environing  influences  which  art  may  employ 
to  modify  and  mold  the  functions,  and  counteracfl  the  eflfedls  of  morbific 
agencies.  Though  incapable  of  subverting  the  movements  determined  by 
ancestry,  and  thus  changing  the  destiny  of  the  individual,  though  pos- 
sessed of  but  half  the  power  for  good  ascribed  to  them  by  professional 
enthusiasts,  thej'  are  still  sufficient  for  much  useful  work  in  their  limited 
sphere. 

io8 


Hereditary  and  constitutional  vices — those  which  prevent 
the  organism  reaching  maturity — run  themselves  out ;  and 
thus  the  race  is  preserved.  In  sick-room  phrase,  they  adl  as  a 
purge,  and  secure  their  own  expulsion.  If  they  are  so  flagrant 
as  to  destroy  the  individual  before  the  marriageable  age,  trans- 
mission and  perpetuity  are  of  course  impossible.  If  they  be 
of  a  milder  grade,  and  take  life  at  a  somewhat  later  period, 
fewer  children  are  born,  and  these  owing  to  congenital  defi- 
ciencies will  in  most  cases  die  before  puberty.  Sometimes,  as 
in  the  case  of  idiots,  imperfection  is  attended  by  infertility. 
Thus  poisons  of  whatever  kind,  incompleteness  and  insuffi- 
ciency of  every  degree  are  eliminated  ;  not  always  in  one  or 
two  generations,  but  ultimately.  This  process  of  self-purifica- 
tion, by  which  corrupt  and  corrupting  elements  are  disinte- 
grated and  eje(5led,  is  forever  going  on.  Were  it  otherwise, 
were  infirmity  and  incompetency  handed  down  with  as  much 
certainty  as  the  opposite  qualities,  mankind  would  become 
hopelessly  degenerate.  To  prevent  this  result,  "nature," 
so-called,  which  is  never  sentimental,  cuts  off  ruthlessly  and 
casts  out  the  worthless  specimens,  preserving  only  the  sound- 
est and  best.  This  is  what  Mr.  Darwin  calls,  not  happily, 
"  natural  sele(5lion  " — a  dodlrine  which  I  have  preached,  in  my 
poor  way,  twenty-five  years.  "The  survival  of  the  fittest," 
as  the  general  fadl  is  succindtly  described,  not  only  preserves 
but  tends  to  improve  all  living  races.  By  the  operation  of 
this  law,  the  "  most  favored  individuals  " — those  whose  circum- 
stances and  natural  endowments  give  them  an  advantage  in 
"  the  struggle  for  life  " — are  left  in  possession  of  the  field,  and 
would  become  the  sole  representatives  of  the  species  were  it  not 
for  the  constant  intrusion  of  debasing  elements.  Filthy  habits, 
crowded  tenements,  hurtful  occupations  and  practices,  luxury 
and  privation,  intemperance  and  other  excesses,  acfting  upon 
each  generation,  are  a  perpetual  drag  on  humanity,  forever 
undoing  the  work  of  improvement  and  reform,  and  keeping 
the  standard  low. 

In   savage   life,    the  conservative  principle  adts  with  more 
certainty  and  fewer  hindrances  than   in   the   civilized    state. 


The  wild  man  is  too  poor  in  invention  and  resources  to  com- 
mand many  of  the  means  of  excess.  Enervating  luxuries  and 
several  of  the  social  vices  are  unknown  to  him.  His  life  is 
but  a  prolonged  battle  with  hardships,  a  ceaseless  struggle  for 
existence,  in  which  none  but  the  toughest  can  prevail.  Those 
not  well  qualified  for  this  prospedtive  warfare — the  sickly,  the 
weakl3%  the  incompetent — perish  in  infanc}^  or  are  crushed  out 
in  the  process  of  training.  Only  the  strongest  and  ablest,  the 
fleetest,  most  skillful  and  sagacious,  those  who  can  longest 
endure  privation  and  exertion,  and  who  are  best  able  to  con- 
tend with  wild  beasts  and  hostile  tribes,  are  likel}^  to  reach 
manhood  and  have  children. 

But  in  the  civilized  condition,  heavier  burdens  are  imposed 
on  the  conservative  and  eliminative  process.  A  highly  arti- 
ficial society  introduces  many  degrading  elements  and  sundry 
new  diseases.  The  poor  suffer  from  overwork,  unhealthy 
trades,  want  and  exposure ;  the  rich  from  indolence,  overfeed- 
ing, anxiety  about  property  and  health,  injurious  pradtices 
and  fashionable  follies  of  every  name  ;  and  all  classes  from 
ungoverned  passions,  drunkenness,  licentiousness  and  a 
hundred  vices.  These  cau.ses,  many  of  them  peculiar  to  an 
advanced  civilization,  la}^  the  foundation  for  disorders  and 
calamities  in  great  variety.  Not  only  this,  but  persistent 
efforts  are  made  to  interfere  with  the  work  of  depuration,  and 
to  keep  the  poison  as  long  as  possible  in  the  social  system. 
These  efforts  are  prompted  by  the  holiest  instin(5ls  of  our 
nature,  but  aim  at  a  scarcely  attainable  objedt.  Among  the 
needy,  the  children  of  worthless  or  vicious  parents  die  early, 
partly  perhaps  for  the  want  of  suitable  care  ;  but  with  the 
affluent,  the  same  class  may  receive  unwearied  attention,  the 
poorer  the  specimen  the  greater  the  diligence.  The  services  of 
dodlor,  nurses,  grandmothers  and  maiden  aunts  are  secured. 
The  maternal  bosom,  underlj-ing  perhaps  a  useless  ladteal 
apparatus,  is  torn  with  forebodings  of  disaster.  If  the  child 
survive  the  storms  of  babyhood,  new  dangers  loom  up  in  the 
form  of  bumps,  scratches,  whooping  cough,  measles,  mumps, 
etc.,  and  every  footstep  must  be  watched  by  hireling  attend- 


ants.  Those  moderate  vicissitudes  and  irregularities  in  the 
environment  which  excite  temporary  perturbations  and  health- 
ful readlions,  and  which  are  indispensable  to  continued  differ- 
entiation and  complete  development,  are  considered  as  enemies 
to  be  guarded  against — guarded  against  on  the  false  and 
mischievous  plea  that  the  more  regular  the  habits,  and  the 
more  uniform  the  life,  the  greater  is  the  chance  of  survival. 
The  organism  which  cannot  bear  the  alternations  which  are  the 
conditions  of  growth  is  doomed  to  perish — the  sooner,  perhaps, 
for  the  means  used  to  save  it. 

The  marriage  of  an  unsound  to  a  sound  person  will  not 
eradicate  a  constitutional  evil,  but  only  tend  to  diffuse  and 
perpetuate  it.  If  in  such  a  case  the  better  stock  should  have  a 
preponderating  influence,  and  children  are  born  who  in  their 
turn  have  viable  children,  the  mischief  is  for  the  time  fixed. 
Without  losing  any  of  its  qualities,  it  is  divided  among  many 
descendants,  and  though  concealed  from  view,  it  still  exists  in 
a  latent  state,  and  will,  sooner  or  later,  probably  make  its  way 
to  the  light.  In  pairing  there  is,  in  the  long  run,  as  much 
lost  on  one  side  as  gained  on  the  other.  Pairing  alone  can 
never  remove  corrupted  blood,  or  change  its  essential  charac- 
ters, however  much  it  may  dilute  it.  Wherever  this  exists, 
there  lurks  a  poison — a  poison  which  must  be  expelled  before 
safety  is  secured.  Premature  death  is  the  natural  remedy. 
I  do  not  deny  that  there  may  be,  in  particular  instances,  some 
advantages  from  dilution.  The  contaminating  elements  may 
perhaps  be  so  mollified  and  weakened  by  a  large  infusion  of 
healthy  material  that  favorable  environing  influences,  inclusive 
of  needful  medical  treatment,  may  at  length  cause  their  elimi- 
nation without  the  loss  of  life.  But  such  a  result  can  only  be 
attained  by  persistent  good  management,  and  a  fortunate 
concurrence  of  circumstances.  If  the  radically  defe<5live  must 
marr)^,  perhaps  the  wisest  course  would  be  to  choose  for  part- 
ners those  most  like  themselves,  thus  concentrating  instead  of 
spreading  the  evil.  In  this  way  a  family  would  become 
extin(5t,  but  the  race  would  prosper. 

Children  receiving  a  structure  essentially  faulty  are  exposed 
to  danger  at  every  step.     Disease  in  a  decided  form  is  produced 


by  causes  apparently  trivial ;  medicines  do  not  give  the  cus- 
tomary relief;  and  death  follows,  perhaps  when  no  good 
reason  for  it  can  be  assigned.  Some  busybody  thinks  it 
strange  the  dodlor  cannot  cure  so  simple  a  complaint  as 
catarrhal  fever,  or  sore  throat,  or  "  a  cold  in  the  bowels." 
Perhaps  the  prescriber  thinks  so  too,  but  some  good  soul  more 
charitable  than  either  attributes  the  result  to  an  "  inscrutable 
Providence. ' '  The  religious  view  is  in  accordance  with  the 
fundamental  fadls.  Providence,  whose  wa^'s  are  inscrutable  to 
the  afflidled,  sacrifices  a  limited  good  that  something  better 
may  be  secured — kills  off  the  individual  that  the  race  may 
live.  Thus  a  great  law,  harsh  in  its  execution  but  beneficent 
in  its  results,  is  vindicated.  Death  on  account  of  our  fathers' 
guilt  or  misfortune,  death  in  any  case,  is  a  cruel  remedy,  but 
it  is  eSedlual,  and  should  commend  itself  to  those  who  are 
fond  of  the  "  heroic  "  in  medicine.  It  should  be  regarded  not 
as  a  penalt}^,  but  as  a  means  of  salvation.  Viewed  in  the 
broad  light  of  humanitj^,  the  loss  of  a  single  immature  life  is  of 
small  account  compared  with  the  wide-spread  evils  which  it 
might  inflidl — evils  which  could  onlj^  be  removed  at  a  fearful 
cost.  These  refledlions  ma}-  not  assuage  the  grief  of  bereaved 
friends,  but  science  is  satisfied  when  it  has  set  forth  the  fadls 
and  declared  the  law.  I  suppose  a  verj^  large  majoritj'  of  the 
deaths  in  infancy  and  childhood,  particularly  in  the  large 
cities,  is  due  immediately  to  ineradicable  vices  of  the  constitu- 
tion, hereditary  and  acquired,  and  remotel}^  to  an  effort  to 
remove  from  the  social  system  unclean  and  destru(5live 
elements. 

You  see,  gentlemen,  where  the  current  of  thought  has  drifted 
us.  You  see  the  great  cost  of  removing  faults  of  organization 
by  nature's  method.  In  view  of  the  facts,  the  question  is  here 
forced  upon  us  whether  the  ends  now  imperfectl)'  secured  by 
means  involving  so  frightful  a  "slaughter  of  the  innocents" 
may  not  be  attained  in  a  better  way.  You  will  anticipate  me 
when  I  answer  :  A  better  way  is  known,  and  only  the  consent- 
ing will  is  required  to  follow  it.  If  a  farmer  be  particular  about 
his  herds  and  flocks,  he  excludes  from  among  them  all  the 


unsound  and  base-born.  Would  he  improve  their  quality  ? 
He  selects  the  best — the  healthiest,  the  handsomest,  the  most 
intelligent,  the  more  docile  and  teachable,  etc.,  and  breeds 
from  these  exclusively  till  the  end  is  attained.  Sometimes  he 
sets  up  an  ideal  standard,  and  with  this  in  his  eye  selects  and 
rejects  with  the  assurance  of  reaching  it.  If  he  buy  an  animal, 
he  must  know  its  pedigree.  To  allow  a  scurvy,  ill-favored 
brute  to  mingle  its  impure  blood  with  that  of  the  elect  would 
defeat  his  purpose  and  spoil  his  stock.  Thus  in  a  few  genera- 
tions he  obtains  superior  varieties  of  horses,  horned  cattle, 
sheep,  pigs  and  poultry,  all  of  them  vigorous.  In  the  same 
manner,  any  particular  organ  or  set  of  organs,  any  natural  func- 
tion, faculty  or  instinct  may  be  developed.  In  this  way,  his 
horses  become  good  travelers  and  his  cows  good  milkers  ;  his 
sheep  bear  fine  fleeces,  his  pigs  fat  easily,  and  his  hens  pro- 
duce eggs  abundantly.  Any  slight  variation  in  the  form  of  the 
skeleton,  shape  of  the  head,  length  of  the  body  or  limbs,  size 
and  strength  of  certain  muscles,  etc.,  may  be  increased  by  suc- 
cessive small  accumulations  till  it  becomes  a  marked  divergency, 
and  a  permanent  variety  is  established.  The  initial  change 
which  is  the  first  in  the  process  of  variation  is  often  produced 
without  special  intention  by  exposing  an  organism  to  new  con- 
ditions— a  wild  animal  or  plant,  for  example,  to  the  influences 
of  domestication.  The  wide  departures  from  the  natural  stand- 
ard which  have  already  resulted  from  these  influences  aided  by 
selection  may  be  seen  in  the  achievements  of  the  dog-breeders, 
the  pigeon-fanciers,  the  fruit-raisers,  the  flower-culturists,  etc. 
Under  their  management,  the  living  structure  is  like  clay  in 
the  hands  of  the  potter.  If  there  be  limits  to  their  power, 
(which  I  dare  not  deny,)  no  one  knows  what  they  are. 

From  our  present  point  of  view,  man  does  not  differ  from  the 
organisms  below  him,  one  law  governing  all.  He  has  functions, 
of  which  nutrition  is  the  chief,  which  are  exclusively  vegeta- 
tive— common  to  him  and  plants.  These  are  first  unfolded, 
for  a  time  make  up  his  whole  existence,  and  through  life  a 
large  and  essential  part  of  it.  He  has  other  functions  depend- 
ent on  a  nervous  system  which  are  as  distinctly  animal.     They 


connect  him  intimatel)'-  with  all  those  li\'ing  forms  which  give 
proofs  of  sensation  and  volition.  It  is  not  till  life  is  somewhat 
advanced  that  he  becomes  anything  more  than  an  animal. 
The  intellectual  functions,  the  third  class,  make  their  appear- 
ance at  a  later  period,  and  are  usually  considered  as  belonging 
to  man  alone,  though  the  rudiments  are  plainly  discemable  in 
the  lower  animals. 

The  vegetal  and  animal  functions  do  not  look  beyond  the 
good  of  the  individual.  The  life  which  they  give  is  in  large 
measure  automatic  and  unconscious,  having  seemingly  little 
intrinsic  value.  Nearly  all  the  lower  organisms  and  many  of 
the  higher  appear  to  live  not  for  themselves  but  for  others, 
cotemporaries  and  successors.  Many  furnish  food  for  those 
higher  in  the  scale,  while  the  remainder  are  mostly  occupied 
in  preparing  and  providing  for  offspring,  in  many  cases  dying 
as  soon  as  this  work  is  completed.  Nature  has  little  regard  for 
individuals  ;  sacrifices  them  without  stint,  but  provides  bej'ond 
contingency  for  the  species.  The  function,  distinct  from  all 
others,  which  preserves  the  race,  carries  it  over  from  the 
present  to  the  future,  bridging  the  gulf,  as  it  were,  is  the 
reproductive.  It  is  common  to  all  living  beings,  and  secures 
its  end  bj'-  essentially  the  same  means.  Infallible  instinct 
guides  it ;  immutable  law  presides  over  it.  Man,  with  all  his 
nobility,  is  as  much  dependent  on  it  as  the  humblest  plant  or 
animal,  and  is  exempt  from  none  of  its  conditions.  Were  it 
not  for  some  goodly  inheritance  it  has  already  secured,  and  the 
almost  unlimited  improvement  it  makes  possible,  humanity 
might  well  despair. 

Our  present  civilization,  whatever  else  may  be  said  of  it,  is 
not  what  it  should  be.  Though  under  the  influence  of  the 
most  distinguished  appliances,  some  of  them  having  been  in 
operation  for  centuries,  the  average  man  has  been  but  little 
improved.  We  have  made  great  progress  in  science,  theoreti- 
cal and  practical  ;  have  increased  immenseh'  our  power  over 
the  natural  world ;  have  invented  numerous  labor-saving 
machines ;  have  constructed  steamboats,  railroads  and  tele- 
graphic cables  ;  built  great  cities,    sinks  of  vice  ;  established 


colleges  and  free  schools  ;  made  politicians  and  stump  orators 
of  our  women  ;  set  the  negro  at  liberty  and  put  him  in  office  ; 
in  many  cases  got  rich  in  worldly  goods,  and  spoken  vaunt- 
ingly  of  ourselves  ;  but  poverty,  ignorance,  degradation,  pain, 
disease  and  rottenness  of  every  name  are  still  rampant.  Old 
evils  have  sometimes  disappeared,  but  new  ones  have  taken 
their  place.  By  the  road  we  are  now  traveling,  millennial 
perfection  will  never  be  reached.  Our  measures  to  reform  the 
world  do  not  go  to  the  root  of  the  difficulty.  With  much 
parade  and  diversified  means,  we  try  to  purify  the  stream,  but 
permit  every  one  to  cast  "sewage"  into  the  fountain.  How- 
ever thorough  the  cleansing  may  be,  it  must  be  repeated  with 
every  generation,  and  with  very  little  gain.  In  this  era  of  the 
world,  in  the  last  third  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  all  the 
facts  are  known,  our  practice  should  be  reformed.  The  old 
methods  of  extirpating  evil  and  improving  the  species  having 
proved  inadequate,  suppose  now  we  use  a  little  practical 
wisdom,  and  apply  the  simple  but  effectual  rules  of  the  stock- 
raiser.  While  we  provide  prisons  for  the  ' '  dangerous  classes, ' ' 
so-called,  and  asylums  for  the  unfortunate  ;  while  we  take  good 
care  of  our  paupers,  and  protect  ourselves  from  ruffians,  burglars 
and  assassins,  let  us  not  forget  that  ' '  like  produces  like, ' '  and 
that  "  an  ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a  pound  of  cure."  I  do 
not  say  that  judicious  selection  and  rejection  would  at  once 
qualify  all  men  and  women  for  a  more  exalted  sphere,  and  fit 
each  for  heaven.  It  is  not  easj'  to  eradicate  vices  which  are 
the  growth  of  many  centuries  of  savage  and  civilized  life.  But 
as  a  lover  of  my  race,  I  would  like  to  see  the  doctrine  of  human 
perfectability — man's  capacity  for  improvement — put  to  the  test. 
That  something  may  be  done  to  lift  him  from  the  mire,  and  fit 
him  for  his  proper  position  in  the  organic  world,  is  certain.  It 
is  not  to  our  credit  that  we  are  less  anxious  for  the  purity  and 
health  of  our  own  lineage  than  for  that  of  the  ofttimes  worth- 
less brutes  we  are  accustomed  to  rear.  It  is  a  shame  that  of 
all  those  who  die  in  New  Haven,  more  than  one-half,  on 
the  average,  are  the  cases  of  children  under  ten  years,  seven- 
eighths  of  the  latter  doubtless  from  avoidable  causes.     There  is 


IIS 


no  suflBcient  reason — none  that  can  be  justified — why  disease 
and  death  in  early  life  should  be  so  much  more  frequent  in  our 
own  race  than  among  our  domestic  animals  that  are  well  cared 
for.  When  we  remember  that  the  intellect  and  moral  sense, 
the  passions  and  instincts,  vicious  propensities,  virtuous  desires, 
degrading  tastes,  and  whatever  qualities  distinguish  individuals 
are  seated  in  the  organs,  and  that  the  organs  within  certain  not 
narrow  limits  may  be  modified  and  molded,  their  vital  conditions 
changed,  and  their  functional  exercises  controlled  b}"  intelligent, 
persistent  breeding,  and  that  those  domestic  influences  which  act 
soinjuriousl}'  on  the  offspring — want  and  wretchedness  in  the 
family — will  to  a  large  extent  be  removed  by  the  means  which 
reform  and  improve  parents,  our  indifference  as  to  the  fitness 
of  those  who  perpetuate  the  race  is  not  complimentary  to  our 
civilization.  ^  >;<  ;i<  :4;  *  * 

The  prevalent  belief  that  the  sexual  faculty  cannot  be 
restrained  or  directed,  that  it  must  always  be  left  to  the  guid- 
ance of  a  senseless  instinct,  that  all  with  the  necessary  outfit, 
of  whatever  race  or  parentage,  be  thej-  criminals,  debauchees, 
natural  cripples  or  other  incurables,  vagrants,  scoundrels,  or 
outcasts,  have  the  right  to  representation  in  the  next  genera- 
tion— the  right  to  go  about  defiling  the  fountain  of  our 
dearest  hopes,  upsetting  all  our  plans  for  improvement — is 
irrational,  not  to  say  monstrous.  The  thought  of  caging  the 
authors  of  so  much  mischief  must  not  now  be  entertained, 
for  facts  prove  that  the  faculty  in  question  will  submit  to  checks. 
Public  opinion  does  not  permit  marriage  between  persons  too 
nearl}-  allied  by  blood,  or  between  young  people  whose  bodies 
are  not  matured  by  age,  partly  on  the  ground  that  the  children 
might  be  deformed,  or  punj-  and  sickly.  Popular  sentiment  in 
these  cases  imposes  restrictions  which  are  respected  because 
reasonable  and  proper.  I  am  not  about  to  say  what  new  pro- 
hibitions would  be  useful,  or  what  additions  to  the  statute 
already  in  existence  should  be  made.  Possibly  the  evils  of 
which  I  complain  and  the  remedy  are  outside  the  proper  sphere 
of  legislation.  But  a  few  years  ago  it  was  assumed  that  a 
government  had  a  right   to  life,    and  might   use  any  suitable 


means,  whether  within  or  without  its  usual  sphere,  to  preserve 
it.  Our  national  life,  or  if  you  please  our  national  welfare,  is 
in  greater  peril  from  reckless  breeding  than  it  ever  was  from 
rebeldom  in  arms.  I  am  not  certain  that  anything  commen- 
surate with  the  evils  to  be  corrected  or  the  good  to  be  attained 
can  be  done,  but  our  legislators  and  the  sovereigns  who  elect 
them  should  know  what  are  the  facts.  When  all  comprehend 
the  situation  fully,  see  plainly  the  terrible  consequences  which 
flow  from  present  customs,  we  may  find  out  whether  a  remedy 
be  possible.  A  determined  purpose,  guided  by  wisdom,  and 
modified  by  accumulating  experience,  may  yet  work  out 
important  results. 

Faithfully  have  I  endeavored  to  give  a  correct  but  very 
general  view  of  the  important  topics  which  have  come  up  for 
discussion.  I  have  passed  over  much  ground,  selecting  my 
path  where  the  foundation  seemed  secure.  For  the  most  part 
I  have  avoided  debatable  questions.  At  almost  every  step 
thoughts  were  started  which  I  was  tempted  to  follow,  but  I 
would  not  be  led  aside.  Out  of  the  great  variety  and  abundance 
of  facts,  I  have  had  no  little  difficulty  in  selecting  and  group- 
ing in  an  impressive  way  those  best  suited  to  my  purpose. 
Sometimes,  out  of  regard  for  feelings  which  I  respect,  or  for 
prejudices  which  must  be  endured,  I  have  spoken  less  plainly 
than  I  might.  If,  for  any  reason,  I  have  not  told  the  whole 
truth,  I  have  said  as  much  probably  as  will  be  borne  now. 
Men  do  not  like  to  be  told  of  their  inherited  defects,  and  are 
not  always  patient  when  their  right  to  assume  the  parental 
relation  is  questioned. 


THE    TUTTLE,    MOREHOUSE    &    TAYLOR    PRESS,   NEW  HAVEN. 


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D     000  013  842 


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